Dentist Pulls Out Wrong Tooth

For anyone who has looked carefully at the complications that can happen from wisdom teeth removal page I have put together one of the complications is that the wrong tooth and even the wrong teeth can be mistakenly extracted.

An unfortunate additional instance of a wrong tooth being pulled is discussed over at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035988/Dentist-retrieved-tooth-bin-sewed-hours-later-pulling-wrong-one.html#ixzz1Xguo9Q2tin a post titled “Dentist retrieved my tooth from bin and sewed it back two hours after pulling out wrong one” written by Stephen Moyes and Nick Constabled and published on September 11, 2011.

Now for this specific case that occurs I have not heard quite anything like it. A 44 year old women in the U.K. went to see a dentist over a throbbing tooth. The dentist x-rayed her mouth and for some reason did not look at the x-ray instead extracting the tooth that the woman pointed to.

The woman went home and realized that the wrong tooth had been pulled. She then went back to the dental office 2 hours later and the dentist reviewed the x-ray determined that yes the wrong tooth had been pulled, then retrieved the tooth from the medical waste bin, and sewed it back in the woman’s mouth. The woman had no idea that the wrong tooth was in a medical waste bin with a lot of other bloody tissues from other patients.

At this point the women was sent home even though her tooth that had been bothering her remained. She began to experience a lot of pain and eventually she took some painkillers she had at home. The pain progressed and she was admitted to a hospital the next morning and had both the problematic infected tooth and the tooth that had been mistakenly removed and then replanted removed.

The dentist was suspended from the NHS and his response for the day was

“We didn’t have our regular nurse, there was pandemonium in the practice, and then the nurse left the X-ray in the machine. . I’m a new dentist. I was very stressed-out … I could hear people grumbling downstairs.”

Unfortunately humans can make mistakes and things like this can happen at the dental office. If you are in a lot of pain it can be difficult to think clearly and help make sure the dentist or doctor is doing everything it seems like they should be. It might be wise to bring a friend or family member with you if possible as an additional check for teeth extractions.

Additional Source: http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/09/dentist-pulls-out-the-wrong-tooth-throws-it-away-then-decides-to-sew-it-right-back/

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