Introduction:

Nerve injuries are among the most serious injuries that can occur in a dental office. If you have sustained a nerve injury with persistent symptoms of pain or numbness that are unresponsive to treatments, you should obtain a professional second opinion and then consider consulting a dental malpractice attorney who is knowledgeable concerning dental anatomy and the standard of care to determine whether the nerve injury was avoidable. However, there are many defense traps for those attorneys that are not experienced in handling dental nerve injury litigation and I will try to present an overview of the issues, so that you can better understand your rights and treatment options. The most common dental nerve injuries are to the mental nerve, the lingual nerve and the inferior alveolar nerve, which are branches of the mandibular nerve. We will discuss them separately. The issue of brain damage is fortunately an extremely rare occurrence in a dental office and will be discussed at the close of this section.

 

1. Lingual Nerve Injury 

     a. Anatomy of the Lingual Nerve

     b. Dental Malpractice and the Lingual Nerve

    c. Plaintiff's Burden of Proof

    d. The Defense Arguments

 

2. Inferior Alveolar Nerve Injury

     a. The Anatomy of the Inferior Alveolar Nerve

     b. Dental Malpractice and the Inferior Alveolar Nerve

     c. Plaintiff's Burden of Proof

     d. The Defense Arguments

 

3. Cone Beam CT Scan (CBCT)

                                                          

4. Neuropathic Pain (Including Trigeminal Neuralgia)