A man says he was left too self-conscious to even smile and suffering from years of agonising tooth pain after his dentist failed to spot the telltale signs of serious decay.
Danny Hyde, 22, from Southport, had decay festering in three of his teeth resulting in one tooth being lost entirely when he was still a teenager.
He said his teeth left him with “emotional issues” during his youth as his childhood dentist failed to notice he needed treatment.
Despite complaining of pain to his Bupa dentist over several years only to be told everything was fine - it wasn’t until he started seeing a new dentist that the scale of the problem was revealed.
Danny told the Liverpool Echo: “To be going through all of this at a young age was really emotionally damaging. I hated smiling and had emotional issues during my teenage years as I felt so self-conscious and worried about what people would think if they saw my teeth.”
He added: “I found the whole experience very emotionally stressful."
From the age of 14 to 19, Danny was treated at Bupa Dental Care, on Southport's Church Street, by Dr Christian Popescu.
He said: “During my appointments I was generally told that my teeth were fine, despite raising concerns that something didn’t feel right with my teeth as I had ongoing pain in places. I played rugby a lot growing up and often got knocked in the face so, because Dr Popescu told me my teeth were fine, I didn’t think anything of it.
“In 2019, I began being treated by a new dentist at the practice as Dr Popescu had left and on my first appointment with them I was told that there was decay at three of my teeth and that I needed multiple fillings.
“I was flabbergasted because I’d always been told my teeth were fine. Over the course of my next few appointments, I had a number of fillings, and in 2020 had to undergo root canal treatment to treat the decay in one of my teeth that had been ignored by Dr Popescu.
"I had a number of issues with this tooth after the root canal treatment - I had to attend emergency appointments because of pain, a crown was fitted and then fell off, and eventually I was advised to have the tooth extracted.”
The young tradesman has now been paid £16,000 by Bupa Dental Care after contacting the Dental Law Partnership in 2019.
An investigation revealed the dentist had failed to diagnose and treat Danny's problems between 2015 and 2018, which led to irreversible decay and the root canal treatment that caused further issues.
The case was settled out of court in December 2022.
Danny said: "Three years on, the majority of the issues with my teeth have now been resolved but I have suffered infections and lost teeth in the process. I am now stuck with gaps in my mouth until I can afford remedial work.
“I’ve regularly spent hours travelling to dentist appointments and needing to take time off work, and much of my treatment was delayed due to the pandemic which has prolonged issues even further.”
Olivia Mounsey of the Dental Law Partnership commented: “The distress and pain our client has experienced at such a young age was completely unnecessary. If the dentist involved had provided more satisfactory treatment, his problems could have been avoided.”
A spokesperson for Bupa said: “We are very sorry for Mr Hyde’s experience. We take our clinical care very seriously and in this case, our usual high standards and quality of patient care were not met. The dentist no longer works at the practice.
“Our dental professionals are required to uphold the highest standards of care and meet their professional obligations in accordance with their GDC registrations, and we support them to meet these requirements.”
