Dental Negligence Claims – Average Compensation Payouts And How To Claim

Last Updated 10th April 2025. Have the negligent actions of your dentist caused you to suffer unnecessary harm? Our panel of dental negligence claims solicitors could help you seek compensation. This guide will explain how.

We will begin by outlining the eligibility criteria you must meet to claim compensation. Following this, we share different examples of negligent treatments that could provide grounds for starting a claim.

We will also explore what types of compensation you could receive following a successful dental negligence claim and what they compensate you for.  Finally, we will explore the advantages of making a dental negligence claim with a solicitor from our panel.

Keep reading, or if you don’t want to wait any longer, contact our advisors today for a free initial consultation with no obligation:

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Select A Section

• Am I Eligible To Make A Dental Negligence Claim?
• Common Reasons For Dental Negligence Claims
• How Much Dental Negligence Compensation Could I Claim?
• Can I Claim After Cosmetic Dentistry?
• Can I Claim Against An NHS Dentist?
• How To Make A Dental Negligence Claim
• How Legal Helpline Can Help You Claim
• More Information

Am I Eligible To Make A Dental Negligence Claim?

You can make a claim for dental negligence if you can show the following:

• A dental professional owed you a duty of care.
• They did not treat you according to the duty of care.
• This breach caused preventable harm.

The first point is true if a professional provides you with dental treatment. All medical professionals, including dentists and dental assistants, owe a duty of care to their patients, which means they must treat to a minimum standard of care. This duty applies to dentists, dental nurses, assistants, administrators, and anyone else who provides dental care.

If they fail to provide you with this correct standard, this could lead you to experience avoidable harm.

To see whether you have a valid case or to ask any questions about the dental negligence claims process, you can get in touch with our advisory team.

Common Reasons For Dental Negligence Claims

Below are some examples of incidents that could lead to dental negligence claims being made.

Wrong Tooth Extraction

This is when a dentist pulls out a healthy tooth instead of the one they were meant to. Wrong tooth extractions can leave patients needing twice as much dental treatment as when they first attended the dentist:

• To replace the negligently removed teeth.
• To remove the teeth that were supposed to be pulled in the first place.

A number of factors can cause them:

• Miscommunication between patients, dentists, and their staff.
• Inadequate referral between different dentists or organisations.
• Understaffing or overbooking leaves dental professionals tired.

Unnecessary Fillings Or Root Canals

Some procedures are, in some cases, unfit for purpose or even completely unnecessary. Others may only be necessary because of previous dental negligence. For example:

• A poorly fitted filling allows an infection to build. You have to seek expensive private surgery at short notice to prevent the infection from spreading.
• A dentist prematurely prescribes root canal treatment without advising that you could try to save the tooth. You undergo painful and unnecessary surgery.

Surgical Errors

Like any surgery, dental procedures require careful work by highly qualified professionals. There are a great number of steps that have to be taken to prevent patient harm. For example:

• During cosmetic surgery, the assistant applies whitening agents without checking your history for allergies. You have a painful allergic reaction that lasts several days, and you will have to undergo the same procedure again at a later date.
• Your dentist injects anaesthetic into your jaw at too high a pressure, resulting in nerve damage that becomes apparent over time.

Oral Cancer Misdiagnosis

According to The Oral Health Foundation, 90% of patients diagnosed early with mouth cancer are likely to survive, compared to 50% if it is diagnosed later on. The earlier the cancer is found, the more likely you are to survive for a longer time. Prompt diagnosis is, therefore, key.

If your dentist does anything to delay the proper diagnosis of oral cancer, they could delay treatment or make your condition worse. At the least, a cancer misdiagnosis may cause you to need more invasive and intensive treatment. There are various ways in which they may do so:

• A dentist misdiagnoses a tumour as an infection and prescribes the wrong medication until they realise their error. In that time, the cancer develops.
• An overworked administrator at a dental surgery does not schedule a follow-up consultation. By the time the dentist catches this, the cancer develops.

Dental negligence claims are not limited to the examples above. So long as you meet the eligibility requirements described, you could seek compensation. Contact our advisors using the details at the top of this guide to learn more about making a dental negligence compensation claim.

How Much Dental Negligence Compensation Could I Claim?

There are two kinds of compensation sought in dental negligence claims:

• General damages for suffering and pain.
• Special damages for incurred financial losses.

General damages are worked out by comparing your medical evidence against the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), a document that contains compensation guideline brackets which correspond with a range of injuries. We have included some entries from the JCG below that may relate to dental negligence claims in our table below.

We must point out that the figure in the first row has not come from the JCG.

You can also claim compensation in the form of special damages. This is for financial losses caused by the dental negligence. For example:

• Dental and other related medical costs, including private dental treatment.
• Lost earnings as a result of time taken off work while recovering.
• The expense of travelling to and from follow-up treatment.

Evidence will be required when claiming special damages, such as payslips proving a loss of earnings.

Factors Considered In Your Claim

Various factors will be taken into consideration when your compensation is being calculated, such as:

• What harm you suffered.
• Whether you suffered by physical and psychological harm.
• What treatments you require.
• Your expected recovery period.
• What types of financial losses you suffered and whether you will suffer any future financial losses also.

To discuss your case today and learn more about compensation in dental negligence claims, you can get in touch with an advisor.

Can I Claim After Cosmetic Dentistry?

A dentist or dental practice owes you a duty of care if they provide dentistry for cosmetic purposes. The procedure involved does not have to be medically necessary. By providing care, they take on the duty that comes with it. If they harm you by failing to do so, you may be able to claim for dental negligence.

Examples of negligent treatment you may be able to claim for include:

• Hydrogen peroxide ingestion.
• Damage caused by allergic reactions.
• Painful sensitivity caused by composite fillings.

To discuss the factors of your case today, you can speak with our team of advisors.

Can I Claim Against An NHS Dentist?

You can still claim against a dentist who provides NHS services if you can establish that you suffered harm unnecessarily due to them breaching their duty of care.

When you make a claim against the NHS for negligent dentistry, they could have financial cover under a professional indemnity or insurance scheme. They may use this to pay for your compensation. This only applies to work that has been carried out under an NHS contract. Therefore, it does not apply to cases of private dentistry.

Private dentists will also typically have their own insurance coverage to pay for compensation claims.

Contact our advisors today to learn about the dental negligence claims process.

How To Make A Dental Negligence Claim

There are various steps you should take and that need to be adhered to when making a dental negligence claim; we have set some of these out below.

Evidence To Support Your Claim

In all dental negligence claims, you must provide evidence that supports your case. Some examples could include:

• A copy of your dental records.
• Any correspondence with the dental practice.
• Photographs of the harm you suffered, such as an extracted tooth or swollen gums.
• Contact information of anyone who witnessed the dental care you received, such as a family member who attended the appointment.

A solicitor from our panel could help you gather this evidence as part of their services.

Medical Assessments

If you work a solicitor on our panel, they may arrange for you to attend an independent dental assessment. The findings from this assessment could be used as further evidence in your claim and be used to help calculate how much compensation you could be owed in general damages.

How Long You Have To Claim

Under the Limitation Act 1980, you must start your dental negligence claim within three years of the following dates:

• The date the negligence took place.
• The date you realised you had experienced harm necessarily due to dental negligence (date of knowledge).

Acceptions to this time limit apply to:

• Children under the age of 18. The time limit will only begin from their 18th birthday.
• Those lacking the mental capacity to manage their own claim. The time limit will only begin if the claimant recovers this capacity.

In both cases, where the time limit does not apply, a litigation friend could file a claim on behalf of the claimant.

To find out more regarding the deadline for making dental negligence claims or about how one of the dental negligence solicitors from our panel assist you with the collection of evidence, contact our advisors via the details at the top of this guide.

How Long Does It Take To Claim Compensation For Dental Negligence?

Time frames for dental negligence claims vary substantially. This is because each claim comes with its own set of circumstances. For example, a case where the claimant experienced an allergic reaction could be completely different from another case where the claimant suffered from a broken jaw.

Factors that could impact the time frame of a claim include:

• Whether the defending party accepts that dental negligence occurred
• Whether your claim settles outside of court 
• If your claim goes to court, the court schedule may impact the amount of time it takes to claim
• The amount of evidence you require and how long it takes to gather
• Whether you have fully recovered from the harm you have suffered, or can provide a prognosis so that legal professionals can assess the future impact of the injury
• The extent of the financial harm you may have experienced

You can enquire with an advisor from our team at any time if you would like to discuss the different aspects of your claim that could impact how long it will take to conclude. They could connect you to an experienced No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel and bring you one step closer towards gaining dental negligence compensation.

How Legal Helpline Can Help You Claim

Our panel of specialist dental negligence solicitors are experts in their field, with years of experience helping clients with their dental negligence claims. They can:

• Guide you through each stage of the claiming process whilst explaining any legal jargon used.
• Gather the best evidence possible, saving you the task of doing so.
• Negotiate a settlement for dental negligence compensation with your best interests in mind.

Furthermore, our panel work under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This is a type of No Win No Fee Agreement. This means you will not pay for their representation:

• Prior to the claim starting.
• As the claim is udnerway.
• If the claim ends unsuccessfully.

At the end of a successful claim, you will pay your solicitor a success fee. This is a legally capped percentage of your compensation.

To see whether you could work with a solicitor from our panel, you can get in touch with an advisor today:

• Call 0333 000 0729
• Leave an enquiry online
• Use the Live Chat feature below

More Information

Additional guides by us:

• Guidance on clinical and medical negligence claims.
• £16,000 compensation for broken teeth – our case study.
• How to make a public liability claim if you fall over at the dentist.

You may also appreciate the following pages from around the Web:

• Standards and guidance from the General Dental Council.
• The latest dental statistics from NHS England.
• Safe Smiles – a campaign by the Oral Health Foundation to promote safer dentistry.

Thank you for reading our guide on dental negligence claims.