Wakefield woman awarded £8,000 after dental work left her toothless before son's wedding
A Wakefield woman has been awarded £8,000 after dental work left her toothless before her son's wedding.
Katherine Spencer said she was “absolutely hysterical” when her tooth fell out in the French countryside on the morning of the big day.
It followed what a law firm described as “inappropriate dental bridge treatment” which “failed to address underlying dental issues” leading to “years of discomfort and distress”.
The 63-year-old teacher was a regular patient at Crigglestone Dental Care in Wakefield. Due to the backlog of appointments caused by the pandemic she started being treated by a locum instead of her usual dentist at the practice.
She said: “I have always taken care of my dental health and had a dental bridge that had been in place for 28 years. In late 2021, I visited [the locum] for a couple of appointments, and he suggested replacing my long-term bridge.
“In December 2021, I attended appointments with him to have my old bridge removed and the new one installed.
“I knew very soon that something didn’t feel right; the bridge felt too high in my gums and very tight, so I had to revisit the practice to have it adjusted by him a few days later.
“It ruined Christmas that year as my gums remained really sore and I couldn’t eat anything other than very soft foods for the entire Christmas period.”
Distressed with the whole experience and unable to bite properly, Katherine went back to visit her original dentist on New Year’s Eve who made adjustments and had to remove some excess glue that had been left from the original treatment.
She said: “In January I had to revisit the practice multiple times as the area under the bridge was in a lot of pain and highly sensitive. In February, I revisited my original dentist who reviewed x-rays taken by the locum doctor and spotted a failed root canal at the teeth under the bridge that hadn’t been treated.
“I had to visit a specialist in March 2022 as a result, and at this appointment I was horrified to hear that I needed further root canal treatment.”
She added: “I continued to experience disruptive mouth pain for the next few months as I began a remedial programme with new dentists, which ultimately involved the bridge being removed and replaced.”
The lowest point was in August 2023 before the bridge replacement when, the day before her son’s wedding in France, the bridge broke at the front, leaving a large visible gap in her teeth.
“I was absolutely hysterical,” she said. “I had the tooth that had fallen out of the bridge in my hand and had to find an emergency dentist in the French countryside to stick the tooth back in on the morning of the wedding. I couldn’t eat during the wedding as I was terrified of the tooth falling out.”
Frustrated with the experiences she had gone through, Katherine contacted the Dental Law Partnership in April 2022. The firm said that her underlying issues should have been diagnosed and treated, and that her “unsuitability for the conventional bridge” should have been recognised.
Katherine said: “The fallout from the dental errors made have affected every facet of my life and the two years of remedial treatment have been complete hell. The whole experience has affected me a lot mentally, it affected my speech and massively affected my work, as I was so self-conscious and upset about the stitches in my face during treatment.”
Kyle Padley, of the Dental Law Partnership, said: “The distress and pain our client has experienced was completely unnecessary. If the dentist involved had provided more satisfactory treatment, many of her problems could have been avoided.”
The Dental Law Partnership took on Ms Spencer’s case in 2022. The case was successfully settled in January 2024 when Ms Spencer was paid £8,000 in an out of court settlement. The dentist involved did not admit liability.
The YEP has contacted Crigglestone Dental Care.