£12,000 awarded for substandard bridge

Sophie Angwin acted for E in a claim against his dentist for extracting his UL1 and UL2 to form a bridge from the UR1 to UL3 despite the inevitability of failure of the bridge as the UR1 abutment tooth was due to fail.

E attended his dentist from 2008, complaining that his UR2 crown kept falling off. In 2011, E was advised his front left central tooth and the tooth next to it would need to be extracted and replaced with a bridge from his front central right tooth to his left canine. E was not warned that one of the teeth supporting the planned bridge had a poor prognosis and was not suitable to hold the weight of the bridge and would likely fail.

The bridge lasted 12 months before the crown on the front right central tooth fractured causing failure of the bridge.  E then learned that he would need to have that tooth extracted as well and a new bridge would need to be constructed from his upper right canine tooth; a healthy tooth that would now be damage by crowning to hold a bridge.

E was not advised at the beginning of treatment of other treatment options and  Sophie achieved an out of court settlement of £12,000 for his remedial treatment and to compensate him for his pain and suffering.