Dental pain Woman awarded £10k after teeth needlessly extracted

AI kept getting migraines and toothache. I began to feel worried about the lack of progress, but I was assured that everything was on track and was told that I only needed a couple more appointments. Dagmara Turko

WOMAN from Bristol has been awarded thousands in compensation after she unnecessarily lost four teeth after her orthodontist recommended an incorrect procedure.

Dagmara Turko, 30, visited Czech Pol Ltd in West Bromwich in 2017, and was left in excruciating pain and requiring extensive corrective treatment after her orthodontist recommended she have four teeth removed.

It is understood ‘adequate orthodontic care’ was also not provided.

Mrs Turko has since been awarded £10,000 in damages.

“At my first appointment at the practice, the orthodontist I was seeing made a really good impression,” Mrs Turko said.

“They were reassuring, friendly, and put me at ease. I was told that for my orthodontic treatment to be successful, I would need to have two of my teeth extracted. This didn’t sound great, but I trusted her advice.

“After I had my teeth extracted, along with another two teeth at a later date, I hoped the rest of the treatment would at least be straightforward.

“I was told everything was going well, and that my treatment would be finished within a couple of months. However, the gaps where I had my teeth extracted didn’t close up.

“I kept getting migraines and toothache. I began to feel worried about the lack of progress, but I was assured that everything was on track and was told that I only needed a couple more appointments.”

When Mrs Turko arrived for one of her final appointments, she was informed by the practice that the orthodontist who had been providing her treatment had left.

“I felt completely overwhelmed,” she said.

“I was suddenly left without any orthodontic care when my treatment was ongoing. I started to feel suspicious about the treatment I’d had done. Luckily, I managed to find the professional orthodontist in Bristol who was able to take it over.

“When I had my first appointment with him, he was unpleasantly surprised by what he found.

“Not only were my teeth retroclined and brackets poorly fitted, but the orthodontist also stated there had never actually been any need to extract my teeth as part of the orthodontic treatment in the first place.

“I had to start my treatment from scratch and had new braces fitted in. I felt so devastated.”

Mrs Turko contacted specialist dental negligence solicitors The

Dental Law Partnership. Analysis of her dental records revealed the orthodontist at Czech Pol Ltd practice had failed to provide ‘satisfactory orthodontic treatment and wrongly advised the extraction of four of Mrs Turko’s teeth.’

She never needed to have those teeth extracted for the treatment to work.

“I lost my confidence,” Mrs Turko said. “I’ve been really self-conscious about my teeth as a result of what I went through. It has been over four years since I’ve begun my orthodontic treatment and I’ve had to spend additional money and time to get the problem fixed.”

Tim Armitage of the Dental Law Partnership said: “The distress and pain [Mrs Turko] has experienced was completely unnecessary. If the orthodontist had carried out adequate treatment in the first place, her problems could have been avoided.”

The case was successfully settled in 2020 when £10,000 in damages was paid to Mrs Turko for her injuries in an out of court settlement.

Czech Pol Ltd refused to comment.