To sue the orthodontist?

[HerbertPootle]

No win no fee? How do you do it? What do I need? I have email trails and some notes from earlier appointment. This is long as I’m trying to include all relevant details.

DS first seen Feb 2024 age 11, Orthodontist says he has multiple crowding problems but to wait a year and see if anything changes as he’s small for age and still growing. Confirms DS qualifies for NHS braces. Our local Dentist referred mainly to get baby tooth removed that’s blocking some teeth, they don’t arrange this.

Never got any correspondence and neither did my dentist. Dentist receptionist spent months emailing orthodontist for copy of report. Eventually orthodontist sent transcribed notes from appointment but no report.

No follow up sent Feb 2025 so I chased up. DS had private and then NHS diagnosis summer 2024 for metabolic bone disease which can also affect teeth so I made orthodontist aware in same message chasing appt. Got appointment that weekend (early March).

DH took DS. Different male orthodontist says teeth much, much worse after waiting a year and DS now needs urgent dental surgery. Upper canine in roof of mouth heading in direction of upper incisor roots. He will do referral to specialist/hospital, we will hear direct from them. Probably bit of delay as NHS. DH asked if he should book a further appt with orthodontist but told no need, would hear from specialist direct and see them going forwards.

Phoned orthodontist a few times to chase for a copy of referral letter but they never answer phone. DS also having other bone surgeries during this time so decided to take him to a different private dentist once he’s recovered for second opinion.

Saw private dentist last week, upper canine now hitting roots of upper front teeth. Real possibility he’ll lose all his upper teeth due to delays from orthodontist. New dentist suggests going private with them and doing asap, she’s horrified original orthodontist didn’t remove baby tooth in 2024 as this could have given enough space for canine and incisor to come through normally. Should all have been dealt with in 2024 as was visible on original X-rays (I took photo of xray in appt and showed her). She says this was urgent in Feb 2024, no reason to delay a year. Going back tomorrow to meet with her and new orthodontist with results from CT and find out costs.

Got an email from original orthodontist receptionist today that has given me the rage (and made me want to sue them). She says we were told in appointment in March that we need to make an appointment with an orthodontist to get the referral letters written. Which is a complete lie!!! Why would the orthodontist say make another appointment with an orthodontist? Complete nonsense. And even if he had said that we would have made an appointment straight away!!

So there is no referral letter. I was chasing a copy so I could contact specialist direct thinking it was done 4 months ago with new x-rays to see if we could get a cancellation on NHS before he loses all his adult front teeth. But it doesn’t exist. She’s booked me an appointment for next week to do the letters. Am so incredibly angry 😡

Would you sue original orthodontist??

No, I wouldn’t. Medical negligence is such a difficult field for a claimant to succeed in. IAAL.

Also, when you sue…what are you suing for? It’s either damages or specific performance. The latter is irrelevant in your case. So, what’s your son’s loss so far that can be quantified AND can be said to be solely or a specific % due to this orthodontist? You’ll waste years of your life and a load of stress wrinkles

I’d sue for the cost of the private surgery and private cost of braces which we now have to pay for as it’s urgent. If they’d removed the baby tooth in Feb 2024 possible he wouldn’t have needed surgery or braces but even if he had there would have been time to do it via NHS.

Will see CT scan tomorrow to get an idea of upper front adult teeth can be saved. Would also sue for him losing them due to their inaction if it turns out it’s too late.

I don’t know about whether the orthodontist has been negligent but in my experience it is your dentist that does any extractions not the orthodontist.

The dentist referred to the orthodontist for the extraction as when he did the X-ray he could see the other problems and needed an orthodontist to do it as it wasn’t straight forward.

If it’s only possible and not probable that he would have kept his teeth and been able to use NHS services rather than private services, that’s not enough to sue.

You’d also need to show that the orthodontist saying to wait a year was outside of a reasonable range of responses. Just because a future orthodontist disagreed doesn’t mean that the first one was unreasonable.

You must also consider the impact that the subsequent bone diagnosis has had on all of this which the original orthodontist wasn’t aware of and may have changed his opinion and/or the later different opinions of the subsequent treating specialists.

Would the NHS really have seen him within 12 months with the state of waiting lists? Would you have had to go private anyway realistically with the state of the NHS and dental services generally?

Can you really say he is worse off now solely because of a few months delay rather than the way his teeth naturally have grown and formed and his underlying condition?

Did he see your usual dentist between Feb 2024 and Feb 2025? Is there a reason it could not be rectified by nhs rather than privately if correct referral was made to maxillofacial?

Orthodontists do NOT carry out ANY extractions OP. They advise your general dentist on which teeth need to be extracted or one of two other options:

1. they liaise with tertiary care paeds oral surgery to remove surgically impacted teeth usually canines.
2. they advise your dentist to liaise with tertiary paeds oral surgery with a copy of the orthodontist’s report.

What the orthodontist does not do is physically extract teeth. At all.

I'm confused too. When I saw the orthodontist and I need two teeth taken out, I had to go back to my dentist, the orthodontics clinic did not remove teeth.

This entire mess has been created by a dire lack of communication between orthodontist and the original referring dentist and you.
The new private dentist shouldn’t really be preferring a specialist orthodontist opinion without being on the orthodontist specialist list.

Check if your home insurance includes cover that might help with legal costs.

Id be wary of what the private dentist is telling you, it is very unprofessional of them to be ‘horrified’ if thats the phrase they used, for starters they don't know how the situation looked clinically a year ago.

As per PP, an orthodontist would never have carried out the extractions anyway but potentially may have referred you for exposure & bonding to bring the canine down. I think its very unlikely that as this point there will be any damage to the incisors & its a very common treatment plan to keep unerupted/impacted canines under radiographic review rather than jumping in & doing anything straight away. Any surgery is usually done approx 13/14 in my experience so he is the right age for referral now - this would be to oral surgery/maxfac & would come from the orthodontist. Ie what they are saying they are doing now.

So I don't think you have anything you could ‘sue’ them for …. However it does sound like communication is very poor, so perhaps you could complain via their in house complaints procedure about this.

From what you’ve told us on here, there is a huge mis-communication going on. Even down to the fact that you are under the impression that the specialist orthodontist does extractions. I don’t think you can sue or be successful anyway, but what you can do is 1) complain in writing to the orthodontist practice manager and 2) ask your general dentist to refer to another NHS specialist orthodontist provider. You could possibly complain to NHS England or the Local Authority to get a bit of oomph behind it.

As to whether or not the outcome would be the same, I wouldn’t fixate on the new private dentist’s opinion. Upper impacted canines can be very tricky indeed positionally and extraction of the retained deciduous teeth in a more timely manner possibly wouldn’t have made an iota of difference.
If I’m reading your OP correctly, it’s been 12 months from 1st to specialist orthodontist (with poor communication skills) to where your son is now? Not an unreasonable length of time ime, this happens a lot for various factors so try not to get too worked up at this point.

Yes I know, but they were supposed to refer to hospital for the original extraction but decided to wait a year. They never sent a report. They’re very bad with correspondence (as in I’ve had none at all from them ever, neither has dentist).

My Ds was referred to the dental hospital for the surgery to deal with the tooth in the roof of his mouth then back to the dentist to get the baby tooth pulled at the right time as they were dragging the adult tooth from the roof of his mouth into where the baby tooth was, the baby tooth couldn’t come out too early as they didn’t want that hole to close.

It was a whole 5 year process and appointments with different places had to align, he had to have the braces on long enough to open the gap around the baby tooth, that had to fit in with the dental hospital, which was the longest waiting time, then back to the dentist to get the baby tooth removed and going to the orthodontist every few weeks to get stuff tightened to pull the adult tooth.

*proferring not preferring

Including waiting to see orthodontist to now it’s been about 22 months. If they’d referred for removal of baby tooth and the surgery to move canine in Feb 2024 at the hospital with the specialist we wouldn’t now be in a position of having to pay privately for everything.

One thing that is rammed into undergraduate dentists is not to comment negatively on a predecessor’s work -state the facts by all means as you examine the patient, but do not ‘slag’ off the preceding dentist as you have NO idea of how that preceding appointment went. You don’t know what was said, done or whether the patient was abusive /aggressive etc. So a good ethical professional dentist should be very careful about trashing someone when they weren’t there.

You do realise that most children are waiting upwards of 3 years on the NHS for ortho OP?
That is quite standard across England.

The new dentist is a surgeon who trained at Eastman, with 35yrs experience in NHS and private, she’s extremely good, so I do take her opinion very seriously. She was very angry about my DS’s situation. But yes the orthodontist have a severe problem with communication, my local dentist are very good, they have chased the orthodontist relentlessly for reports which have never been sent. My own dentist have copied me into everything but for some reason seemed happy to wait a year as well.

Not clear why you feel you now have to pay privately. You could have opted for that 22 months ago. The wait for a nhs hospital appointment may well be no longer than private. Orthodontics is a long process including waiting lists and treatment. How old is your ds now?

I don't think you have a case. A medical professional is highly unlike to be critical about another on paper.
Trust me.
I was left with a serious issue by a dentist after a molar extraction that was overlooked despite obviously symptoms and has left me with chronic maxillofacial sinus infections, impossible to prove, you have to move on.

Yes, saw normal dentist for routine check-ups, they also seemed to be happy to wait for the orthodontist to give the go ahead to do something. The orthodontist hasn’t sent the report from March even now to dentist although I mentioned at last appointment he’d been referred for surgery, they’re still chasing it up.

Unfortunately, it was already too late to wait for NHS even if they’d done the referral in March. According to dentist and new dentist (the private dental surgeon) they won’t be able to do it on NHS before he loses some of his adult teeth as waiting lists are too long even for urgent cases. He needs the surgery in weeks not months. Should have been referred in Feb 2024 as urgent.