Ms A said after the first treatment she was in a lot of pain and thought something was not right. Photo: 123rf
The Health and Disability Commission (HDC) says a dentist did not provide a reasonable level of care when he put a crown on a wrong tooth.
An HDC report released on Monday said the woman - whose name was removed for privacy - had a root canal in 2019, and was advised to crown the tooth six months later.
After being given a quote by her regular dentist that the work would cost $1850, she went to another dentist, referred to in the report as Dr B, who she had seen advertising a special price for crowns.
The report said the woman had four appointments with the dentist in 2020, including an initial consultation and two appointments to complete the crown.
Ms A said after the first treatment she was in a lot of pain and thought something was not right.
"She went back to see Dr B due to the pain, which she described as so severe that she was crying and finding it hard to cope several days after the procedure," the report said. "A stated that Dr B 'was not fazed' and said that the pain would settle. He prescribed antibiotics as he thought her pain was due to an infection."
The dentist told her the pain would be resolved by completing the crown.
When the woman returned to her regular dentist in April 2021, they pointed out the wrong tooth had been crowned.
Ms A filed a treatment injury claim with ACC, which was approved and allowed any resulting treatment to be covered.
She did later require a root canal on the tooth mistakenly crowned.
The dentist accepted he had made a mistake and expressed that he was "truly sorry that this situation [had] arisen" and that he felt very sorry for the position Ms A had been put in.
He said he wanted to apologise to her but had been unable to do so, as he had had no direct contact with her since the events.
Dr B said he had followed his usual practise for identifying the tooth which required treatment, which included taking a history from a patient, doing a clinical examination and doing an X-ray.
The woman said she had no memory of an X-ray being done, and the dentist said the X-ray images taken could not be located.
Ms A's recollection was that the dentist had asked her which tooth needed the work, and she had indicated it to him.
She also had asked her regular dentist to send through her records, but there was no evidence to show the information was passed on.
The report says Dr B's clinical notes were brief, handwritten, difficult to read and did not meet the expected standard.
Dr B retired and sold his dental practice to another provider, and had not held a practising certificate with the Dental Council since 2021.
The HDC said the care provided was well below the standard expected of a competent dentist, but as the dentist was no longer practising no further action was taken.
It recommended the dentist provide a formal written apology to Ms A, which he had done, and that if he returned to practice that the Dental Council should review his competency.
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