A few months ago I bit into a piece of very hard, almost coal-like wood, that was in a bag of salad I bought from a supermarket. I bit down on it with a filled molar and the filling fully cracked, forcing my tooth apart as it did.
I had to get the tooth root-filled, cost totaling just under £1,000.
I got in touch with the supermarket and asked them to cover my dental repair costs. Long story short, they refused* so I got in touch with a solicitor's firm-I stipulated that all I wanted was for them to pay for the costs of my treatment to fix the tooth and my petrol costs to and from the dentist. I was not looking to 'compo seek' thousands of pounds, I appreciate accidents happen, I just want reimbursing for the expensive dental treatment that the stone being in the packet had caused.
Long story short, supermarket still refused and put the blame on the manufacturer of the bags of salad-who have provisionally accepted liability.
They are sending me to an impartial dentist. I did ring the solicitor and asked them what this appointment would involve-I had assumed it was to just check that the medical records I had sent to them could be verified, that it was actually definitely valid information-substantiated when they looked at my tooth. The solicitor said it wasn't this, they may not even look at my tooth or examine my mouth in any way! They just want to talk to me and be told exactly what happened.
But, they already have all of this information, and my dental records proving what has happened and what treatment was required to 'fix' the tooth.
Does anyone have any experience of this? Anything I can do or not do that will mean I am more likely to receive payment for the treatment?
*They offered me £75 which is as I understand, roughly the cost of an NHS filling. I do not have an NHS dentist and likely couldn't get one even if I wanted to, plus my dentist told me that although he could give me a filling on the tooth, there were so little of it left that it wouldn't last, could cause further damage and would likely remain painful and fail after not long, so it just would not have been sensible to do that.