Lower Jaw Dental Work Common Cause of Dental Nerve Damage in Georgia

Dental malpractice can occur during various procedures, but some common dental procedures result in a much higher percentage of dental malpractice claims. The reason for this is probably the complexity of the procedure, the proximity of the procedure to certain anatomical structures in the mouth and tongue and jaw and the severity of the injury when these structures are violated by the dentist performing the procedure. Some of the procedures which tend to cause the most Georgia Dental malpractice claims are:

• Tooth Extractions in the Lower Jaw: Improper extraction techniques during complex extractions can lead to damage of the jawbone, nerves that run along the jaw and tongue and other parts of the face.  This results in nerve damage and has leads to signs and symptoms such as pain, numbness, (pain and numbness together) and loss of feeling in the lip chin gums, teeth and face.
• Root Canals Procedures in the Lower Jaw: Not complying with the applicable standard of care when performing root canal therapy (root canals) results in errors during root canal procedures, such as perforations of the root, over-instrumentation of the canals, apllying too much pressure whine filling the canals, using the wrong type of filling material, incomplete cleaning, or overfilling of the canal. These can call cause cause infection, pain, nerve damage and or damage to surrounding tissues and, even at time, damage to the surrounding bone when the malpractice causes and infection and the infection is not treated in a timely manner or is treated ineffectively. This can lead to osteomylitis, a very serious bone infection that is extremely hard to treat due to the lack of blood and oxegynation in the infected bone..
• Implant Placementin the Lower Jaw: Improper placement of dental implants in the lower jaw can result in nerve damage, sinus perforation, or damage to nearby teeth or structures. Most of these errors are caused by improper planning of the implant procedure, improper diagnostics, lack of sufficient radiographic imagining, failure to adhere to a safety zone when installing the implant to reduce the risk of nerve damage, inexperience on the part of the dentist, a lack of care when drilling the osteotomy for the implant, failure to take post-implant xrays and read them to make sure that the implant is not in or too close to the nerve canal (which is almost always going to lead to nerve damage).
• Failure to Properly Test for and Diagnose Oral Cancer:
• Robert J. Fleming is a partner in the law firm of Katz Wright & Fleming, LLC in Atlanta, Georgia and Decatur, Georgia. He is a personal injury attorney who has been handling wrongful death, dental malpractice, professional negligence, car accidents and premises injury cases for individuals and families who have been severely injured or died as a result of negligence since 1995. He practices in the metropolitan Atlanta area including the city of Decatur, Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, Gwinnett, and Cobb counties in Georgia. He has successfully handled many high-value dental malpractice case. We invite you to view our “Results” page to see the types of dental malpractice case we have handled in the past.  While past performance is not a guarantee of future success, we stand ready to help your or your loved ones navigate this tough time. If you or a family member has been seriously injured by a dentist and would like to discuss your case in complete confidence to see if there may be a claim for dental malpractice, contact Robert J. Fleming directly on (404) 525-5150 or contact us online. We are here to help.