One month ago I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed. I was in pain for about two weeks after the operation because the dentist had a hard time removing my bottom left tooth. He told me he had to cut a lot more area than normal just to get to the tooth.

After those two weeks, I went back in to see him to complain about my tongue feeling funny...or actually, not feeling at all. He said "We might have accidently cut a wrong nerve while removing your bottom left tooth, it was giving us a lot of trouble."

So, a month later I can not taste or feel anything on the left side of my tongue. I tried scalding hot water (bad idea by the way, I ended up burning my lips), ice, lemon juice, hot sauce...no taste or feeling at all on the left side. I was eating pizza recently, and as I was chewing I heard a very loud crunch. I put my finger in my mouth only to find blood. I had bitten my tongue and wouldn't have known it unless I heard it.

The right side is fine. The very tip of my togue also is lacking any feeling. It has mildly effected my speech. I noticed I have a harder time pronouncing certain words with S's in them. Almost as if I've developed a minor lisp.

Do I have any legal options here? I signed a lot of paperwork at the Dentist office, but I didn't sign anything that said they can ruin my tongue. ::

 

Piss on that..

Sue the shite out of him!

My dad had carpel tunnel surgery(sp?)

They operated one the left hand in a different way than they explained to him and damaged a bunch of nerves because he has thick skin. They knew he had thick skin from the get go and that they would have to operate outside of the normal circumstances. The right hand they did the procedure how they explained in the consultation and it came out fine.

Shortly after bush came into office, he put a cap on malpractice cases at $150k.

My dad ended up getting $95k out of it. It took about a year and a half from filing to money in the bank.

The doctor told him the nerves would heal and feeling would come back in his 3 fingers. That the sensitivity to vibrations would go away (No motorcycle, tractor, lawn mower, golf) He had to wait 9 months for the healing process to complete.

2 Years went by with no healing in his hand. Thats when they filed.

Good luck.. Definitely pursue it!

 

Sue!


I thought that different areas of the tongue taste different flavors...does food taste funny now?

 

It was disproven that the taste buds taste diffrent in diffrent parts. It looks like the damaged the glossopharyngeal nerve. There is a chance it will repair and you'll regain function. There is a chance it won't. wiki

If you sue you'll probably get a settlement unless he decides to fight it. If he fights it you'd probably loose. It doesn't sound like malpractice was committed, but in this ligitinous society full of undereducated people who want to make a quick buck the insurance company will probably settle because in the end it costs them less.

 

is he a reg dentist or an oral surgeon?

 

I actually had two people pull my teeth. I was unaware they were going to use two people. One was a dentist, one was an oral surgeon.

 

I was under the impression that an oral surgeon had to do a surgical extraction. Not sure why I thought this but I did not think that a dentist could do a fully sedated surgical removal.

 

Interested in this thread, my wife has a similar situation.

 

ouchh. how much of the left side of the tongue?
how is ur tongue after you bit it?

i'd go and pursue this. sue his ass

good luck!

 

I bit through the tongue on the left side. It was bleeding a lot. Never felt anything, and it seems to be fine now. I bit it about two weeks ago.