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Dental Malpractice Lawyer

MEDICAL MISTAKES THAT OCCUR DURING DENTAL OR PERIODONTAL TREATMENTS, SUCH AS ROOT CANALS, EXTRACTIONS, AND IMPLANT PROCEDURES, CAN BE SERIOUS AND EVEN LIFE-THREATENING.

Dentists, periodontists, orthodontists and oral surgeons, just like other medical professionals, must adhere to a standard of care to avoid injury to patients. If they do not and serious injury results as a result of their negligence or incompetence, dental malpractice may be involved and become grounds for a lawsuit.

If you or a loved one has been injured or someone has died due to dental malpractice, you may be entitled to medical benefits and compensation for your loss.  However, not everything that goes wrong during a dental procedure is grounds for malpractice, and not all dental injuries warrant going to court.

For a claim to be successful, the burden of proof is on the patient, so it is essential to have a skilled dental malpractice lawyer on your side.

The experienced and compassionate dental malpractice lawyers of Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters have spent decades honing their skills and successfully representing Pennsylvania families who have suffered an injury or loss due to dental medical negligence. We offer a free consultation to examine your situation to determine if you have a case and show you how we can help. Call 1-(570) 323-8711 for a free consultation, or use our online contact form.

Dental Malpractice

Dental problems can affect not only your mouth, but the rest of your body.  Your mouth is full of bacteria and nerves, so when mistakes are made in dental procedures, the results can lead to nerve and bone damage, enormous pain, and life-threatening infections.

Negligence that leads to dental malpractice can occur through:

  • Errors during oral surgery and surgery that fails
  • Errors administering anesthesia
  • Injury to nerves, such as the lingual or mandibular nerve, that may be painful and even permanent
  • Teeth that are removed needlessly or damaged by procedures
  • Failure to look for, detect and diagnose oral cancer
  • Damage leading to permanent impairment or injury to the jaw, mouth, lips or tongue
  • Bacterial infections due to oral treatment that start in the mouth and become systemic, damaging the body or even causing death

How Common Problems and Injuries Occur

  • Anesthesia – Dental professionals are increasingly using strong anesthetics, such as Articaine/Septocaine, that contain a combination of anesthetics and vasoconstrictors. The combination can cause cardiovascular alterations that could have serious consequences for patients who have severe cardiovascular problems.  Reactions to articaine may result from overdosage, unintentional intravascular injection, or slow metabolic degradation, injection technique, volume of injection, or hypersensitivity.
  • Bacterial infections – Dental work may cause bleeding and an opening where bacteria can enter the body. Infections that may begin with a dental procedure are often difficult to treat and may spread to bones, lead to osteoporosis, and impact other body parts if not promptly treated or if antibiotics do not control and eradicate the problem. Heart conditions are also associated with infections, with the highest risk of serious complications caused by endocarditis, which affects the inner lining of the heart and the surfaces of its valves.
  • Sepsis – Infections in the mouth can cause bacteria to move out of the tooth to the bone or tissue below, and form a dental abscess. A dental infection can lead to sepsis, or blood poisoning, which can cause death or disability.

What to do

Any complications from dental procedures require early and immediate treatment. The American Dental Association recommends that people with heart conditions or joint replacements receive prophylactic or preventative antibiotics before they have dental work done.  Your dental professionals should take every precaution in examining your medical history before doing any procedure.

If you have had a dental or periodontal procedure that caused significant pain or inflammation, you should seek medical care right away to minimize the injury and avoid additional and increasingly serious problems.

If you have already experienced serious injury, you should contact a dental malpractice attorney to help you secure payment from negligent dental professionals as compensation for pain and suffering and the cost of future medical and dental care. Since 2012, Pennsylvania has had a law requiring all dentists to carry malpractice liability insurance.

Put Your Trust in Us, Contact Us for a Free Consultation

If you or a loved one suffered an injury or acquired a serious infection in the course of undergoing a dental or periodontal procedure, time is of the essence.  It is essential to have a skilled and knowledgeable dental malpractice lawyer on your side, especially since Pennsylvania malpractice laws are so complicated.

Whether in settlement negotiations or pursuing a favorable trial verdict, the experienced medical malpractice attorneys of Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters are familiar with the law and thoroughly prepared and committed to achieving a just outcome and getting you the compensation you deserve.  With our sizeable staff, we offer strength in numbers while providing top-notch personal service.

If you or your loved one has suffered from dental medical malpractice, don’t delay. Consult Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters by calling 1-(570) 323-8711 for a free consultation, or use our online contact form.

Based in Williamsport, we serve clients throughout the state of Pennsylvania, offering a free consultation on all injury matters. More than that, we offer you experience, knowledge, compassion, and a long history of results.

Attorney Cliff Rieders

Attorney Cliff RiedersCliff Rieders is a Nationally Board Certified Trial Lawyer practicing personal injury law. A large part of his practice involves multi-district litigation, including cases related to pharmaceuticals, vitamin supplements and medical devices. He is admitted in several state and federal courts, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. Rieders is the past regional president of the Federal Bar Association and is a life member of the distinguished American Law Institute, which promulgates proposed rules adopted by many state courts. He is a past president of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, formerly Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association. As a founder of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, he served on the Board for 15 years.

Not only has Rieders held many highly esteemed, leadership positions, he authored legislation related to the Patient Safety Authority and the Mcare Act, which governs medical and hospital liability actions in Pennsylvania. He authored texts upon which both practitioners and judges rely, including Pennsylvania Malpractice Laws and Forms, and Financial Responsibility Law Issues in Pennsylvania, the latter governing auto and truck collisions in Pennsylvania. In addition, he wrote several books on the practice of law in Pennsylvania regarding wrongful death and survivor actions, insurance bad faith, legal malpractice claims and worker rights, among others. Rieders also serves as a resource to practitioners as a regular speaker for Celesq, an arm of the world’s largest legal publisher, Thomson Reuters West Publishing.

As recognition of his wide range of contribution to his profession and of his dedication to protecting the rights of his clients, he received numerous awards, among them the George F. Douglas Amicus Curiae Award, the Milton D. Rosenberg Award, the B’nai B’rith Justice Award, and awards of recognition from the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers. [ Attorney Bio ]