Mydentist: Dental patient awarded £5,500 after healthy tooth pulled out

Harrison Watt, 26, from Rodley, went to Mydentist in Leeds in 2021 and complained of a cracked tooth.

An X-ray was taken and his dentist recommended a filling for the cavity that was causing pain.

However later that month, the pain started getting worse and it turned out the tooth needed to come out.

However the dentist pulled out a “perfectly healthy” tooth – leaving the 26-year-old with a large gap. He has now been awarded £5,500 in compensation with the help of specialist dental negligence solicitors the Dental Law Partnership.

He said: “I attended an emergency appointment because there was a throbbing pain in my mouth at the site of the filling where, it turned out, an abscess had been forming.

“I was given antibiotics and advised I needed to return to have the tooth extracted.

"During the procedure, she was having to tug really hard and the process was quite painful for a tooth that I thought was meant to come out easily.

"I wondered if everything was okay but trusted her to be doing the correct procedure as she was the expert.”

But when he looked in his mouth after the swelling had gone down he realised the wrong tooth had been taken out. He said: “I attended a meeting with the practice manager and they started counting the teeth in my mouth and the realisation hit that it was indeed the wrong tooth that had come out.

"As a result, I had to take more antibiotics as the infected tooth was still in my mouth, and then had to attend for another extraction of the correct tooth. It then became a double issue as my mouth was trying to heal from the tooth that had been in a good state before being ripped out as well as from the abscess I was suffering from in the infected tooth. It was hard to sleep, extremely sensitive and made eating more of a challenge.”

After instructing solicitors, it emerged that Mr Watt should not have been given the filling and the dentist should have recommended extraction.

He said he’d been left feeling self conscious about the gap. Missing two teeth also means more strain on surrounding teeth, which could cause issues in the future too.

He said: “Although my new dentist is great, I’m certainly still apprehensive about going to the dentist.”

Rebecca McVety of the Dental Law Partnership said: “The distress and pain our client has experienced was completely unnecessary.

"If the dentist involved had provided more satisfactory treatment, his problems could have been avoided.”

An out of court settlement was reached in May 2023. The dentist involved did not admit liability.

A spokesperson for the practice said: “We would like to apologise for the experience Mr Watt has had.

" Ensuring that our patients receive the highest quality dental care when being treated at our practices is our first priority and we’re disappointed that on this rare occasion it fell below our expectations.”