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Today, a report from the Health and Disability Commission revealed that the hospital stay came after a dentist made multiple failures in treating an infection after the removal of his wisdom tooth, including the possibility that his patient self-medicated and confused it with dry socket.
The woman, who has not been named for privacy reasons, had her wisdom removed from the bottom right in April 2018.
In the following days, she developed a painful mouth and “found it difficult to eat or open her mouth,” according to the report. He visited the dental service three times to discuss his symptoms.
He also began taking an antibiotic not prescribed by the dental clinic, which he had obtained abroad. She disclosed this to her dentist, who did not advise her to stop self-medicating, according to the investigation.
Deputy Commissioner for Health and Disability Kevin Allan criticized this, saying that “a patient taking self-prescribed medication is a significant ‘red flag’.”
The report says the dentist diagnosed him with dry socket and prescribed a course of the antibiotic amoxicillin.
Her infection worsened and she was admitted to hospital, where pus was drained from her socket and she was cared for in the intensive care unit for two nights.
In the report, Allan said the dentist did not acknowledge that the woman’s complication was an infection and not dry socket.
The dentist also failed to provide proper treatment, even if it was dry socket, and he missed an opportunity to recommend that he stop taking his own antibiotic and take amoxicillin instead, Allan said.
He said the dentist did not meet the Dental Council’s documentation standards and that the dental service had inadequate policies for determining what medications clients were taking, and that poor record keeping and missing records indicated problems with broader systems in the practice.
“None of the dentists determined which antibiotic [the woman] was taking. I am not satisfied that the dental service had adequate policies to deal with the situation where a patient is known to be taking medications that have not been prescribed by the office to treat dental conditions. “
As a result of the investigation, the Deputy Commissioner recommended that the dental service audit its clinical records and develop additional policies on the management of patients who are taking medications not prescribed by the clinic.
He also cautioned that the two dentists involved underwent additional training and that the dentists and the dental clinic apologized to the woman.
