A WOMAN from Preston has won a total of £25,000 from her dentists after they failed to treat her tooth decay, resulting in her losing four teeth.

Kathryn Lunn, 42, was awarded £18,000 and then £7,000 in two separate cases after it emerged that her former dentist Dr Gregor Maclean of the Spring Lane Family Dental Practice in Manchester had failed to treat her case of decay properly between February 2002 and October 2008.

She was then failed by Dr Ian Wiper and Dr Hina Kadri at Diamond Dental Care in Preston who consistently failed to spot and treat decay.

Miss Lunn, a secretarial assistant, said: “I’d been seeing Dr Maclean since I was young.

“I’d never really had any problems with my teeth, and Dr Maclean seemed to know what he was doing. I just thought I was having routine check-ups, and everything was fine.”

“I started suffering from toothache so went to see Dr Maclean.

“He initially said he didn’t think anything was wrong, but at my next appointment he said I needed root canal treatment and a filling.

“I trusted his advice and decided to go ahead with the recommended treatment.”

Unfortunately, Miss Lunn’s dental problems persisted when she moved and started seeing Dr Wiper and Dr Kadri in Preston.

She said: “This is when things really took a turn for the worse.

“Despite me being in pain, they insisted nothing was wrong with my teeth at various appointments.

“But the pain got so bad it ended up ruining Christmas as I couldn’t even eat properly and had to keep on going to lie down because of the pain.

“I eventually ended up losing four of my teeth which I never thought would happen at my age.

“I started to suspect my problems were down to poor treatment.”

In response, Miss Lunn contacted the Dental Law Partnership in 2016 who examined her dental records and found that Dr Wiper and Dr Kadri had consistently failed to spot and treat decay that was clearly visible in X-rays.

Further analysis revealed Dr Maclean had also failed to diagnose and treat decay, instead he undertook root canal treatment that didn’t resolve Miss Lunn’s problems and as such, the Partnership pursued cases against all three dentists in 2016.

The case against Dr Wiper and Dr Kardi was successfully settled in 2018 when the dentists paid £18,000 in an out of court settlement.

The second case was successfully settled in 2020 when Dr Maclean paid £7,000 in an out of court settlement but did not admit liability.

Miss Lunn said: “I am still in shock really, the whole process has been horrendous, and I’ve been in agony as a result of my experience with these dentists.

“To think this is all because they weren’t doing their jobs properly is infuriating.

“I placed my trust in them and have endured years of painful dental problems as a result.

“You can understand perhaps having bad treatment from one dentist, but from three at two different dental practices is ridiculous.”

Dental Law Partnership associate Jennifer Paine agreed.

She said: “The distress and pain our client has experienced was completely unnecessary.

“If the dentists had carried out adequate treatment in the first place, her problems could have been avoided.”

To find out more about the Dental Law Partnership, go to: www.dentallaw.co.uk.