Morrison Mahoney’s Christina Canales obtained a defense verdict in a dental malpractice case, which was brought against our client, a general dentist. It was a six day trial in Stamford Superior Court.
The case arose from an extraction performed by our client in November of 2019. The plaintiff claimed that our client breached the standard of care in failing to: provide the plaintiff the option of having the extraction performed by an oral surgeon; to identify, plan for, and alert the plaintiff of spreading infection; to suture the extraction site; to prescribe the plaintiff antibiotics; and to appropriately treat plaintiff post-extraction for infection. The plaintiff claimed that as a result of our client’s negligence, he developed osteomyelitis of the C7 to T1 for which he required a 41 day stay in the hospital and rehabilitation and six week course of antibiotics. The plaintiff claimed that the bacteria, which landed and grew on his spine entered his bloodstream during the extraction and just one gram of amoxicillin would have prevented the infection.
Our experts disagreed and testified that our client was qualified to perform the extraction as a general dentist, and her care and treatment of the plaintiff fell within the standard of care. The experts further testified that antibiotics were not required under the dental standard of care, as there were no indications for the prescription of a prophylactic, pre-treatment or post-extraction antibiotic. Finally, our infectious disease expert testified that even if antibiotics had been prescribed, they would not have prevented the infection.
The jury deliberated for three and a half hours before returning a defense verdict.
