Woman awarded thousands after routine tooth extraction leaves her in intensive care
Saira Malik said she was still traumatised by the treatment many years later
A London mother-of-three has received an £8,500 settlement after a routine tooth extraction resulted in a fractured jaw, haemorrhage and a stay in intensive care.
Saira Malik, 54, a civil servant from Surbiton, endured a traumatic ordeal following a procedure at a local dental practice in September 2019.
Malik, a long-standing patient, was initially referred to a different practice for the extraction of an upper right molar in March 2019 due to persistent toothache. However, the pain continued in her upper mouth. Upon returning to her regular dentist in August 2019, she was advised to have her upper left molar removed.
Malik said there was difficulty during the extraction leading to “pulling and shoving”, which caused her to suffer a haemorrhage and pass out.
She woke up in hospital in the intensive care unit, later finding out her upper jaw had fractured during the extraction and a large chunk of bone was pulled out with the tooth, meaning she could only consume liquids through a straw for months afterwards.
“All you could see was just blood and blood and blood… it was continuous buckets of blood, gushing through.
“When I woke up in hospital, I was in the intensive care unit. I was on machines to stop the bleeding and I was told my jaw was fractured.
“I’m still traumatised, I still haven’t been able to walk into a dentist since then.”
Specialist dental negligence solicitors, the Dental Law Partnership, took on Malik’s case in 2019, and it was successfully settled in May 2024 when she was paid £8,500 in an out-of-court settlement – although the dental practice owners who paid it did not admit liability.
In a statement, the practice said it does “not agree with the facts as conveyed by the Dental Law Partnership” but it takes “pride in providing the highest standards of treatment and care to all (its) patients”.
Malik said she was able to use some of this money to pay for a family trip to Egypt in November 2024 to celebrate her grandson’s first birthday and make “happy” memories.
Malik is now encouraging others to seek a second opinion if they are unsure of the advice and treatment they are receiving, and to trust their gut instinct.
“Don’t be afraid to question the professionals and take a second opinion if you need to be 100 per cent sure,” she said.
“I feel that by receiving the settlement, it shows that something has been done and I wasn’t just forgotten about.”
In a statement, the practice said: “We would like to make it clear that we do not agree with the facts as conveyed by the Dental Law Partnership, but we cannot provide details of this patient’s treatment and management because of our professional duty to protect the confidentiality of our patients.
“This claim was resolved by way of an out-of-court settlement, with no admission of liability on our part. We take pride in providing the highest standards of treatment and care to all our patients.”