Payout for Corby woman hospitalised and ‘worried she’d be disfigured forever’ after routine tooth filling went wrong

A Corby woman who spent three days in hospital following a routine filling has won £13,000 in compensation.

Midwifery support worker Jayne Draper lost two teeth following the dental work she had in April 2021 and was left in agony after an infection set in.

Jayne, 64, had been regularly attending Bupa Dental Care Corby, at the Cottingham Road health complex in Corby for 12 years, and was treated by multiple dentists at the practice until 2021.

She said: “I have always taken care to attend appointments and look after my teeth. I had a number of routine treatments at the practice over the years and always trusted the quality of the treatment.”

In April 2021, one of Ms Draper’s crowns fell out whilst eating and, in the process, she swallowed it.

“I visited the dentist following this and it was revealed that a tooth had chipped and I would need two fillings,” she said.

The dentist completed one filling, but was unable to do the second in the tooth where the crown had fallen out until a later appointment due to Covid restrictions.

The following month, Ms Draper returned to the practice to have the second filling.

A few days later she began experiencing pain in the left-hand side of her mouth, which had also started to swell, as the filling procedure caused a significant mouth infection.

“A lump started to develop on the left side of my jaw and it got to the point that my face was so swollen that I couldn’t open my mouth properly - I was struggling to speak and unable to eat,” Ms Draper said.

“I attended an emergency dentist appointment at my practice but, because I couldn’t open my mouth, they couldn’t do X-rays and could only prescribe antibiotics.”

Unfortunately the antibiotics failed to reduce the swelling.

"I couldn’t sleep or work or go about daily life” said Ms Draper.

"I struggled to get another dentist appointment because of Covid restrictions and was in so much agony I resorted to ringing 111.

“By the time I was seen by a GP, the swelling had spread across my face, up to my ear and down to my chin, and I was sent straight to A&E.”

Once in A&E, Ms Draper was referred for an urgent procedure to have the infected tooth extracted, and the infection drained, which would require general anaesthetic.

She said: “As I could barely open my mouth, I couldn’t have the anaesthetic administered in the normal way - the consultants couldn’t believe what they were seeing! The last thing I remember before the operation is having tubes posted down my nose and mouth, which was an extremely frightening experience.”

Ms Draper spent two nights in hospital and the only thing she could eat was yoghurt.

She added: “After the hospital trip, I was off work for about six weeks as I still struggled to eat. The hospital experience had a really bad impact on my mental health too, as I was constantly having nightmares about the tubes being inserted.”

Ms Draper contacted the Dental Law Partnership in 2021. Further analysis revealed that the treating dentists at the practice failed to properly treat two teeth and as a result infection progressed with repeated acute episodes and repeat courses of antibiotics. Eventually Ms Draper was admitted to hospital and underwent a procedure under general anaesthetic for surgical extraction and drainage. She suffered the loss of two teeth.

“I truly worried that my face would be disfigured forever,” she said.

"The swelling went down gradually, but I couldn’t eat proper meals again until the end of the summer, and the damage caused to the teeth surrounding the infected area means I will likely end up with a permanent gap in my mouth,” Ms Draper said.

“Even now, almost two years on, I still have flashbacks and nightmares about my hospital trip from hell.”

Jennifer Paine of the Dental Law Partnership said: “The significant distress and pain our client has experienced was completely unnecessary. If the dentists involved had undertaken more sufficient examinations and provided more appropriate treatment, her problems could have been avoided.”

The Dental Law Partnership took on Ms Draper’s case in 2021. The case was successfully settled in February 2023 when Ms Draper was paid £13,000 in an out of court settlement.

The dentists at the Bupa surgery, owned by Oasis Dental Care, did not admit liability.

As the treating dentists were self-employed associates the settlement fell under their own indemnity and so Bupa said they were unable to comment on Ms Draper’s case.