Dental Implant Malpractice Worries?
Robert, a dentist, informs us:
I am a general dentist who has carefully and responsibly and
successfully placed many dental implants over the past twenty years of
practice. This week, though, my life turned to hell.
Here´s the story: Patient is a 44 year old sweet woman. I surgically extracted broken lower 2nd molar on June 22, and decided on the spot to save her a second surgery. I placed two dental implants in extraction site, and a third in area of missing first molar. For years I have done every dental implant with a CT. This time, though, because the decision was on the spot and I wanted to save her a surgery, I relied on periapicals, i.e. pennicillin one week and dexamethasone 6mg/two days.
The night of the surgery when I called patient she reported pain, but it sounded typical, particularly because there was a surgical extraction also involved. Only 5-6 days after did she suddenly say, “..and it is still quite numb.” The next day I sent her for a CT. When the CT was delivered to my office. I closed the door, sat down low because of fear of fainting, and my worst fears were realized: What I read as the ceiling of the mandibular canal was the floor. I had placed three dental implants squarely into the mandibular canal.
I found an oral surgeon who saw the films and advised to get them out as soon as possible. I immediately called the patient and she said that besides the total anesthesia of the right lip and chin area, she is having quite a lot of pain in the right incisor and lateral. I told her that “there is probably too much pressure” on the nerve, and she came in and I removed the three dental implants.
That was Friday June 30 (8 days after surgery). It is now a week later, however, her symptoms have not changed. I reassure her that it will return, but that patience is needed. The only thing that has changed is my wildly fluctuating blood pressure, pains, dizziness, nauseousnes!
What do I do now? Should I involve my insurance company at this point, or wait to see if there are changes? Would it be malpractice if I don’t refer her to an oral surgeon now, or, because waiting is the only option now, that would just be pushing her into fear and into antagonism which she doesn’t have yet? Do I need to say the words to her “I, the dentist who you so like and trust, the one who came so well recommended from so many of your friends in this small community, placed dental implants into your nerve and has most probably damaged you for life?”
Please help in any way. Are there any experts I should speak to? Is the pain in the incisors a sign of hope? Is there any way for me to help her? Is there any way out of this horrible mess for me personally without totally losing the trust and love of so many of my long term friends and patients that she is connected with?
