A man from Grimsby has been awarded £6,000 in compensation after his dental work left him in pain for years and he had to undergo expensive restorative care. Dockworker Darren Aldous, of Immingham, first visited the Medimatch dental clinic in Grimsby back in 2008 and decided to sue Dr Ruben Martinez, Dr Guillermo Dominguez, and Dr Ignacio Puertas after they failed to diagnose severe tooth decay in several of his teeth. The dentists, who no longer work at the practice, agreed an out-of-court settlement.
Mr Aldous told the Grimsby Telegraph that he suffered badly with toothache and found it stressful trying to deal with the situation as a single parent. He said ‘I lost confidence because the first thing people see when you meet is a smile and when people don’t see a smile, you end up feeling isolated.’ Regarding his botched treatment, Darren explained ‘I went to Dr Martinez in June 2008 because I had really painful toothache. I was told I needed three fillings. With this being routine treatment I wasn’t worried at the time’.
Darren returned with more pain in October and Dr Dominguez took some X-rays that showed the decay had developed further and there was a root left in the socket from previous tooth extraction – the root was removed but it was claimed that Dr Dominguez failed to treat the tooth decay adequately with a single filling in March 2009.
Following months of on-going treatment, which included six fillings and two tooth restorations performed by Dr Puertas in early 2010, Darren decided to register with a different dentist and pursue legal action. His Lawyer from the DLP argued that ‘X-rays clearly showed several of Darren’s teeth were decaying. We would claim each dentist had the opportunity to diagnose and treat this but failed to do so. Darren now has to undergo several root canal treatments and have crowns fitted as a result of their treatment.’
None of the dentists admit liability.