NHS Tayside investigating dental patient care
NHS Tayside is examining dental patient care because a man was forced to spend nine days in hospital following a tooth removal procedure.
The case has been inspected by the Scottish ombudsman and representatives from the service have asked the health board to apologise to the patient.
The patient had a wisdom tooth extracted at Dundee Dental Hospital; the tooth was severely decayed and impacted and the procedure appeared to go well. However, a few days after the procedure, the man developed swelling around the site of the extracted tooth and suffered pain and discomfort. He was seen by personnel at Dundee Dental Hospital, Kings Cross Hospital and Arbroath Infirmary and was eventually accepted to Ninewells Hospital. Doctors diagnosed the patient with an contaminated haematoma, which required emergency surgery.
The patient has subsequently recovered but feels let down by the health service; he feels that several opportunities were missed to diagnose the condition and he ended up waiting an unnecessary amount of time for treatment.
The ombudsman service said that the details of the case were vague and it was subsequently complicated to determine when the man’s condition started to deteriorate. Representatives also said that it was unfortunate that the man developed symptoms during a weekend and was unable to see specialist, experienced staff. They claimed that there was no evidence to uphold the man’s complaint; however, they agreed that the situation was not acceptable.
Officials from NHS Tayside said that the patient should have been advised to see his dentist after 48 hours if symptoms had not improved after starting antibiotics. The board has taken the ombudsman’s comments into consideration and will use them to work more effectively in the future.
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