Los Angeles Dental Malpractice Attorney – When to Hire One

Why might someone need to hire a Los Angeles dental malpractice attorney?  Easy.  Because everyone understands that in a city like Los Angeles, the home of all things Hollywood - including the glitzy and glamorous world of beautiful actors and models - physical appearances matter.  Dentists don’t just clean teeth anymore, no.  The profession has expanded into a lucrative field of “cosmetic dentistry” and the varying types of procedures that are offered by dentists in Los Angeles have quadrupled.

So, too, have the instances of so called “Dental Malpractice” where one suffers significant loss or pain at the hands of a negligent dentist.  It’s a numbers game.  The more people in Los Angeles go to a dentist for major procedures, the more procedures are done.  The more procedures that are done by more dentists, the more the chances are that end up with someone who is not qualified and something goes wrong.  When something does go wrong, it’s time to call a Los Angeles personal injury attorney who specializes in dental malpractice; also known as a Los Angeles dental malpractice attorney.

Los Angeles resident Guy Terry went to a Los Angeles area dentist in 2006 to get three teeth extracted as a result of crowding of his teeth.  The dentist mistakenly extracted eight upper teeth, believing that the “3” was an “8”.  The restorative surgery to fix the damage was estimated to cost about $60,000.  Guy Terry found a dental malpractice attorney in Los Angeles, sued the dentist and won a large settlement that was later challenged on an unsuccessful appeal.

What is significant about dental malpractice is what it shares in common with legal malpractice and medical malpractice, which is this:  Dental malpractice concerns an action that a dentist does to cause harm to his dental patient – something they did or should not have done.  But dental malpractice also concerns a dentist’s failure to act, such as failing to diagnose a serious problem that eventually causes injury or death.

Sally Newton was an aspiring actress in Los Angeles.  Over two years she paid several visits to a Los Angeles cosmetic dentist, who bleached her yellowish teeth to a bright white, straightened her teeth gave her a movie star smile.  Why the dentist didn’t see the brown spots on her tongue, caused by years of chewing smokeless tobacco is a mystery.  By the time the oral cancer was diagnosed a year later, she had to have part of her tongue removed as well as parts of her gums and cheek.

Her Los Angeles dental malpractice attorney subpoenaed the cosmetic dentist’s records and proved the obvious; this dentist has been negligent for failing to diagnose Sally’s oral cancer.  The dentist’s malpractice insurance carrier was quick to offer a large and fair settlement before the case even went to trial.  Not that they weren’t prepared to fight it out.  Sally located a Los Angeles personal injury attorney that specialized in dental malpractice cases and she was successful.

If you live in Los Angeles and you believe you have a dental malpractice case, hire a Los Angeles dental malpractice attorney.  Look for one, especially, that will take a large case like yours on contingency.  Hire an attorney particularly if you receive an injury that harms your ability to taste food or drink or one that permanently numbs your tongue or part of your tongue.   Like Sally, hire a dental malpractice attorney in Los Angeles if your dentist fails to detect oral cancer or any other serious diseases or conditions.  And like Guy Terry, hire an attorney if you endure unnecessary extraction of multiple teeth.

Even when releases are signed, if a dentist in Los Angeles injures you, you may still have a case.  Especially if your Los Angeles dental malpractice attorney can demonstrate injuries that go beyond some unwanted short-term pain or a few unwanted extra visits to the dentist you didn’t want to pay for or had to take time off for.  The acts of dental malpractice should be significant enough that quantifiable harm can be demonstrated.  But it is the job of the Los Angeles personal injury attorney who specializes in dental malpractice to tell you if you have a case.  Don’t wait.