A TEENAGER has been awarded £10,000 after a dentist allegedly left him unable to eat ice cream.
Toby Parker claims his "really painful" tooth extraction aged 15 could have been avoided if decay had been spotted earlier.
The lad, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, had been visiting the same dentist for more than a decade.
He alleges that while he had had strong fluoride paste applied to several of his teeth, no decay was ever identified or treated.
The true condition of his oral health, he alleges, was only discovered after his mum took him to a different dental hospital in 2021, seeking a second opinion over whether he needed braces.
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It was confirmed that he didn't, but staff discovered a range of problems that they said should have been previously treated.
"The hospital diagnosed decay in a few of my teeth, which was luckily caught before it got worse," Toby, now 18, said.
"I also have hypomineralisation where the enamel on my teeth is soft and more prone to decay than normal.
"They advised on a suitable treatment plan to have one of my teeth extracted, as well as fillings on three others."
This was "really painful", and left Toby and his parents incredibly frustrated as they felt it could have been prevented.
Analysis by the Dental Law Partnership (DLP) concluded Toby's decay should have been spotted and treated in 2018.
The law firm alleged that this led to the significant deterioration of the youngster's teeth, and the loss of the one he had taken out.
"I’m now missing a tooth which I should’ve had for the rest of my life," Toby said.
"It’s annoying and now my teeth are so sensitive that I can’t eat cold things like ice cream.
"But more importantly, it’s the shock of the whole thing and disappointment at the mistakes the dentist made at a crucial point of time in my life, especially after the amount of trust I put into him as a child.
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"It’s really not pleasant when you find out the person you trusted for years has let you down, and I’m now scared of going back to the dentist."
Poppy Heslop, from the DLP, said: "The distress and pain our client has experienced was completely unnecessary.
"If the dentist involved had provided more satisfactory treatment, his problems could have been avoided."
The firm took Toby's case in 2021 and it was successfully settled out of court in February 2024.
The dentist involved did not admit liability.
