Dental malpractice definition.
A malpractice is a term used to refer to professional liability for negligent acts. When we talk about dental malpractice specifically, we refer to negligent acts committed by a professional in dentistry. This includes, but is not limited to dentists, oral surgeons and/or orthodontists. The usual scenarios of dental malpractice include wrongfully administered anesthesia, failure to properly treat complications, failure to supervise actions of employees, failure to diagnose a condition, improper extraction of dentition pieces (teeth), failure to refer to a specialist, or lack of informed consent.
In this article, we will analyze what is necessary for a plaintiff to prove dental malpractice, and what are the steps to bring a dental malpractice lawsuit to court.
Dental Malpractice Lawsuit.
To successfully build a dental malpractice case, a plaintiff need to establish the following four main points:
- The nature and extent of the injury. It is important to analyze the level of seriousness of the patient’s injury before filing the lawsuit. If the patient wants to sue for discomfort due to temporary pain, then it may not be worth the work, even if the pain was caused by malpractice.
- The correspondent medical standard of care under the specific circumstances. In this case, the plaintiff needs to compare if a different dentist with similar skills would have provided a different treatment under the same circumstances. For this point to be well established, it is imperative to find an expert medical witness (in this case a professional dentist who has done the same procedure several times) to testify his opinion.
- The existence of a dentist-patient relationship. Even though this point is not typically disputed because it is easy to prove, it is still important to provide a professional relationship between dentist and patient.
- How the standard of care was breached, causing harm to the patient. Finally, a plaintiff must prove that the professional made an existing condition worst by making a bad judgment call. This is where an expert medical witness comes handy.
Filing a Dental Malpractice Suit.
Technically speaking, a lawsuit officially begins when the pleading has been formally filed with the court. This is when the ball gets rolling. The defendant dentist will have about a month to respond to the complaint. Once the parties meet, they need to share the discovery, meaning the plaintiff and the defendant must share the patient’s dental records, treatment, insurance, testimonies, witnesses, testimony from the expert and any other information regarding their dental history.
If the case is not settled out of court by both parties, and the judge does not dismiss the case, then it will proceed to trial.
Defending a Dental Malpractice Lawsuit.
A proper documentation is the cornerstone of any malpractice lawsuit. In case of a dental malpractice case, the patient’s dental record must contain a future treatment plan, a clear chronology of events, and all communication between the dentist and patient. This comprehensive documentation is referred to as patient’s history.
It is important to understand that people will examine the dental record when there is a pending lawsuit. That is why unclear documentation, inconsistencies or missing pages will be problematic when building a defense.