A woman from Knebworth village has been awarded nearly £5,000 by a dental practice after poor treatment left her without one tooth. Carole Gavin took Dr Alykhan Dinani to court after a routine root canal treatment resulted in an infection that meant the tooth had to be removed.
46-year-old Gavin defended her choice to sue the clinic, saying ‘I’m not the sort of person who would just decide to take legal action. I wanted to make people aware of what happened and that there is a recourse.’ The mum-of-three first visited the practice in May 2008 and was given a badly-fitting crown that allowed food to become lodged under the tooth, leading to infection and an abscess. According to Mrs Gavin, ‘He did not remove the food residue that was causing the abscess’ and she was later rushed to the hospital to have it treated.
Carole then switched clinics and was informed that the tooth was not salvageable and the root canal had been carried out incorrectly, she told Hertfordshire Mercury ‘I was relieved to finally know the reason behind so many months of pain but absolutely furious I was put in that position in the first place. I trusted Dr Dinani completely but received extremely poor treatment.’
Mrs Gavin sued last year, with the help of dental negligence firm Dental Law Partnership; she was awarded £4,875. Dr Dinani did not admit liability and Stevenage Dental Practice did not wish to comment on the case.