Poor root canal treatment caused pain

What happened

Mr D went to the Dental Practice for a routine check-up. An X-ray revealed an infection in a tooth and the dentist completed root canal treatment. Mr D said that the next day his face was swollen and he had fluid coming out of his mouth. He said he went to hospital and staff prescribed him antibiotics. Mr D complained to the Practice as he said the infection lasted for five months and did not clear up until he had the adjoining tooth removed. Shortly afterwards he also had to have the original tooth out. He said the Practice should have prescribed antibiotics before or at the same time as doing the root canal treatment.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. There were failings in the root canal procedure, and the Practice did not advise Mr D of the pros, cons and risks of the treatment. We did not find failings in the Practice's decision not to prescribe antibiotics, but we saw that as a result of the failings in the root canal procedure Mr D suffered pain.

We did not link the loss of the tooth treated and the tooth next to it, to the care and treatment Mr D received. The root canal treatment might have failed to save the tooth anyway, and we did not find the loss of the other tooth was due to any failings on the part of the dentist.

Putting it right

The Practice apologised to Mr D and offered to pay him £250.