A RIBBLE Valley woman has been given £7,500 in compensation after suffering months of toothache which culminated in a painful two-hour extraction and emergency treatment.

Rachel Depledge, a HR adviser from Clayton-Le-Dale, suffered such excruciating pain and sleep deprivation that she had to undergo the protracted tooth extraction lasting two hours, as well as enduring further pain and discomfort after the procedure.

She brought a legal claim alleging a dentist failed to diagnose and treat decay in one of her teeth and another provided defective root treatment.

The claim was not tested at trial, but the dentists made an out-of-court settlement of £7,500. The dentists did not admit liability.

Mrs Depledge visited Dr Muhammad Iftikhar Ali and Dr Syed Mohammed Minhaz Rahman at Park House Dental Surgery in Ramsbottom between May 2017 and January 2019.

The 37-year-old said: “I first visited Dr Rahman in 2017 for a routine examination, I was never informed of any possibility of having decay at any of my teeth. However a few months later one of my teeth broke so I booked in to see Dr Ali. He examined my tooth and recommended a filling. Once I’d had the procedure, I thought that the problem would be sorted and that would be the end of it.

“I ended up going back to see Dr Ali 10 times over a 12-month period as I was suffering from toothache. Eventually, he said I needed to have root canal treatment. In hindsight, I should have stopped going to see him a lot sooner, but I thought he was a professional and I trusted his advice. Even after I’d had the root canal treatment, I was still in a lot of pain. I was struggling to sleep, and I had to miss time off work as I was feeling so tired. It got to the point where I couldn’t even eat properly so I went back to Dr Ali yet again. This time I had my tooth extracted.”

Describing the treatment, she said: “The pain was indescribable. I was in the dentist’s chair for two hours and there was a lot of blood coming out of my mouth. Dr Ali eventually decided he was unable to extract my tooth so sent me for an emergency appointment to have it extracted.”

Mrs Depledge contacted The Dental Law Partnership who say analysis of her dental records showed Dr Rahman had failed to spot and treat decay.

Dr Ali then failed to carry out satisfactory root canal treatment resulting in the need for an extraction, which Dr Ali attempted but failed to execute correctly resulting in Mrs Depledge being sent to an emergency practice for completion of the extraction.

Mrs Depledge said: “If the decay had been spotted or the right treatment provided then I would never have had to go through all of this in the first place.

“Even though my tooth’s been removed I’ve still been getting infections and struggling to sleep. I’m only 37-years old and I’ve already lost one of my teeth. I’ve been told I’ve got to consider what the dental impact of this will be for the rest of my life."

Rebecca McVety, Dental Law Partnership said: “The distress and pain our client experienced was unnecessary. If the dentist had carried out adequate treatment in the first place, her problems could have been avoided.”

The Dental Law Partnership took on Mrs Depledge’s case in 2019 and the case was successfully settled in 2020.

A spokesman for Park House Dental Surgery said: “Our staff always strive to provide the very best care for all patients. We cannot provide details of the treatment and management because of our professional duty to protect the confidentiality of patients.”