Dental procedure error and payment
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Dental procedure error and payment
I have no health insurance so everything I get done
medically is out of pocket and extremely expensive. I
recently had a root canal done on one of my molars and
the dentist caused the tooth to Crack and it now will
most likely need to be pulled regardless of the fact
that they just charged me 2k to do the canal. Im not
trying to get any sort of pain and suffering
compensation or anything of the like. I just feel as
though I should not be obligated to pay for a procedure
that left my tooth worse off than it started out. Is
there any hope of me being reimbursed for the botched
procedure or at least have them cover the nessisary
procedures to rectify the problem they causedon’t such
as the extraction and bridge that will surely be needed?
Asked on January 20, 2017 under Malpractice Law, New York
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
If you can show that the tooth was cracked due to the negligence, or unreasonable carelessness, of the dentist, you can recover your resulting medical costs (e.g. the cost to pull it; possibly for an implant to replace it). However, you would need to hire a dental expert to write a report and, if necessary, testify at trial; the expert would be required to show how the dental treatment you received was careless or improper, since you, as a layperson cannot testify about what is or is not proper medical care. The cost of such an expert (and of a lawyer, if you retained one) could exceed what you hope to recover from the lawsuit, so while you appear to legally have a claim, it may not be a cost effective one to pursue.
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