Going to the dentist is far from being a cakewalk, and it’s not this British patient who will say otherwise! In the United Kingdom, Paul Thorpe, 58, came close to death at the dentist when his gold crown dislodged from his tooth to land in one of his lungs. It all started in March 2021. Disturbed by a filling that kept dislodging, Paul decided to consult his dentist. The latter then advised him to devitalize the tooth, a way to put an end to this somewhat too capricious filling.
Unfortunately, the operation did not go well. By pulling out the filled tooth, the practitioner moved the crown of the next tooth. It was then that Paul felt difficulty breathing. “I suddenly pushed him away, straightened up and started coughing, says the fifty-year-old in the columns of The Sun. I was having trouble breathing and was sputtering everywhere. you, have a glass of water’ (…) But when I moved my tongue in my mouth, I told him ‘I no longer feel my crown’, which was attached to the tooth next to the one I ‘he took away.”
“It blocked 60% of the air I breathed in”
At first, the dental surgeon assured Paul that “the crown would eventually come out the other side within a few days”. But Paul, convinced that something was wrong, insisted that he prescribe a chest X-ray. He then discovered the inconceivable: his crown had become lodged in his right lung. “It was shocking. It blocked 60% of the air I breathed in. I was told the only way to remove it was under general anesthesia.” This is how his simple appointment with the dentist resulted in a very invasive surgery. After surgery at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, Paul was able to successfully have his crown removed, but doctors warned him that he could have died from the unfortunate incident.
In December 2022, the dentist involved denied responsibility for the incident, but the Dental Law Partnership found he failed to provide the necessary care before, during and after the procedure. Paul was thus awarded £4,500 (about €5,000) in damages. “I didn’t even think about the money, said the grandfather. The reason I attacked him was to make sure he was better prepared in the future. I don’t want not that such a thing happens again”, he concluded.
The intervention went wrong © Pexels
