£8,000 Broken Tooth Compensation: A Guide To Mouth Injury Claims
Sustaining a broken tooth through no fault of your own can be frustrating, with many cases requiring emergency dental care. But did you know that you could be entitled to make a claim for a broken tooth if third-party negligence was responsible?
In this article, we aim to help you gain a better understanding of if and how you can make a personal injury claim. From explaining how to determine liability to valuing how much compensation you could receive, we’ve created a comprehensive guide to claiming for a tooth break.
If you’re considering making a claim, a legal professional could significantly boost your claim’s chances of success. To see how our panel of personal injury lawyers could help you, please contact one of our friendly advisors today.
We offer free personalised consultations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We’re available on 0800 408 7827 or by using the live chat feature on your screen.
Select a Section
- A Guide To Tooth Fracture Injury Claims
- What’s The Difference Between A Tooth Fracture And Mouth Injury?
- Victims Can Suffer Financial Pressures
- Receive Extra In Care Claims
- Mouth And Tooth Injury Compensation Calculation Estimates
- Case Study: £8,000 Compensation Payout For Broken Teeth
- Free Compensation Calculation Estimates
- No Win No Fee Services For Your Claim
- Best Quality Personal Injury Solicitors Can Help
- Speak With Us
- More Helpful Information
A Guide To Tooth Fracture Injury Claims
In attempts to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of making a claim for a tooth break, this article begins by outlining how to identify a crack, chip, or break in your teeth, as well as some accidents commonly responsible.
Next, the potential effects of sustaining this type of injury is discussed, including physical, psychological, and financial impacts. Some injury-related expenses that are commonly incurred are also covered in the context of reclaimable costs in your personal injury claim, also known as special damages. To illustrate the claims process, we’ve provided an example case of ‘Miss Jones’, based on our experience handling and valuing claims.
If you’d like any more information or are interested in learning about the services our panel of personal injury lawyers provides, please reach out to one of our specialist advisors today.
What’s The Difference Between A Tooth Fracture And A Mouth Injury?
Whether you’ve cracked, chipped, or broken your tooth, these seemingly minor incidents can result in sensitivity, pain and loss of confidence.
If a piece of tooth has broken off, put it in a container of milk or saliva and take it to a dentist. In some cases, a dentist may attempt to glue the tooth fragment back on, or cover it with a filling or crown. For more serious breaks in the tooth where the nerve is subsequently exposed, root canal treatment may be performed.
If your broken tooth was caused by third-party negligence, you could be entitled to claim for compensation. To establish grounds for negligence, your accident must meet the following criteria:
- Did the third-party owe you a duty of care?
- Was the third-party in breach of this duty?
- Were you injured as a result of this breach?
In order for the responsible third-party to be held liable for your injury, they must have been in breach of a duty of care that they owed to you. Here are some bodies commonly owing a duty of care:
- Employers
- Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, your employer could be held liable for your broken tooth if they were responsible for the accident that caused it. A report by the Health and Safety Executive found that slips, trips, and falls accounted for over a third of all major workplace injuries.
- If you’re injured in an accident at work, such as tripping on loose wires obstructing your path, you could be entitled to compensation.
- Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, your employer could be held liable for your broken tooth if they were responsible for the accident that caused it. A report by the Health and Safety Executive found that slips, trips, and falls accounted for over a third of all major workplace injuries.
- Those in control of public places
- Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, those in control of public places, such as parks, are all subject to public liability regulations. If you’re injured in a public place and third-party negligence is responsible, you could be entitled to claim.
- If you tripped on a deep crack on a public pavement and sustained a broken tooth, you could claim against the council responsible for maintenance.
- Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, those in control of public places, such as parks, are all subject to public liability regulations. If you’re injured in a public place and third-party negligence is responsible, you could be entitled to claim.
- Road users
- A road traffic accident (RTA) is any collision involving a vehicle or other road user. Between 2018 and 2019, RTAs resulted in at least 157,530 casualties.
- If you broke your tooth in a collision caused by a dangerous driver, they could be held liable for breaching the Highway Code.
- A road traffic accident (RTA) is any collision involving a vehicle or other road user. Between 2018 and 2019, RTAs resulted in at least 157,530 casualties.
Victims Can Suffer Financial Pressures
If you’ve cracked, chipped or broken your tooth, you may experience financial shortfall as a result. For example, if you’ve taken unpaid sick leave to attend appointments with a dental specialist, this can leave you out of pocket even if the injury wasn’t your fault.
As part of your personal injury claim, special damages can be claimed back in attempts to restore you to the financial position you were in prior to sustaining your injury. These can account for expenses including medical expenses, prescription fees, and care costs. They can also be claimed to account for any potential financial losses in the future.
Please continue reading to learn more about special damages, or get in touch with one of our advisors today.
Receive Extra In Care Claims
After being injured in an accident, it’s common to experience some level of incapacity and require assistance. Whether you’ve received gracious care from family and friends or professional help, you could be entitled to compensation as a result.
Compensation is calculated according to the type of care you received. For example, if your friend had to help you to and from dental appointments because the anaesthetic left you unable to drive, this would be considered gracious care. In this case, the hourly rate of a local professional is taken, then reduced on the basis that the service is non-commercial.
Alternatively, compensation for professional care is valued according to invoices raised. Therefore, we advise you to retail a paper trail of any costs incurred to avoid losing-out.
In addition to personal care costs, you could also claim for any usual care that your injury prevented you from providing. For example, if you normally provide day-to-day assistance to a vulnerable relative but were unable to do so for injury-related reasons, you could claim for the cost of a carer to cover you.
Mouth And Tooth Injury Compensation Calculation Estimates
If you choose to acquire the help of a personal injury lawyer when pursuing your claim for a broken tooth, you can expect to be asked to undergo a medical assessment with an independent specialist.
At your appointment, you’ll receive a physical examination and be questioned about your accident in attempts to help value your claim. This process also helps corroborate that your accident happened in the manner in which you describe, evidencing your claim. Therefore, it’s vital to attend to avoid losing the compensation you deserve.
General Damages
Personal injury claims have two heads of damage that can be accounted for; general and special damages.
General damages cover physical and psychological harm as well as the impact on your life. It considers the severity of your injury and the extent of your recovery.
Special Damages
Special damages can be additionally claimed to account for injury-related costs incurred, with the aim of restoring the claimant of the financial standing they had prior to their injury. They can also account for future losses if, for example, the injuries meant you had to change careers. Common costs recovered through special damages include:
- Expenses
- Prescription fees, travel costs to medical appointments, and care payments
- Loss of earnings
- Financial shortfall from unpaid sick leave and predicted loss of future income
Case Study: £8,000 Compensation Payouts For Broken Teeth
The local park was a place where the claimant, Miss Jones, 16, often spent time after school with her friends. However, when the poorly maintained playground equipment she was on collapsed, Miss Jones suffered two broken front teeth as a result.
Miss Jones’ broken teeth required emergency dental work as her nerves were exposed, causing severe sensitivity and pain. A root canal was required to be performed, after which Miss Jones was fitted with two dental crowns.
As Miss Jones was a minor, she was unable to represent herself. Therefore, she appointed her mother to make a claim for a broken tooth on her behalf. They found a personal injury lawyer experienced in public liability claims to handle her case.
Since the local council responsible for maintenance had let the playground equipment fall into a state of disrepair, Miss Jones’s lawyer argued that they were in breach of their duty of care and should be held liable for negligence.
Despite the council initially disputing liability, they decided to settle and Miss Jones was awarded £7,150 in general damages. In addition, she recovered around £850 in special damages, bringing her personal injury settlement to a sum of £8,000.
Type of Special Damages:
Includes:
How Much?:
Travel Expenses To and from appointments/treatment
Miss Jones was awarded £345 for travel expenses. This accounted for multiple appointments with a dental specialist outside of her local area.
Medications/Prescriptions
Prescriptions, treatment, physiotherapy, walking aids, etc.
To cover medical costs, Miss Jones was awarded £275, accounting for her root canal procedure and dental crowns.
Additional Care
Professional care at home, from family, childcare, etc.
For the assistance Miss Jones received from her family, she was awarded £230.
The case of Miss Jones is purely an example. It is based on our past experiences of handling and valuing claims and serves to illustrate how accidents can happen and how they are valued.
Free Compensation Calculation Estimates
In our experience handling and valuing claims, we know that every case is unique. Therefore, we advise against using online personal injury ‘compensation calculators’ as the estimates they provide can be inaccurate, leading to disappointment down the line.
For a consultation that you can trust, please get in touch with one of our advisors today and see how our panel of personal injury lawyers could help you win the maximum payout you deserve. They’re standing by, waiting to help you make a claim for a broken tooth today.
No Win No Fee Services For Your Claim
If the financial risk associated with making a claim is stopping you from pursuing compensation, have you considered a No Win No Fee agreement?
You might not have heard of these agreements before. If so, they simply mean you don’t pay your solicitors’ fees unless they win your case (and there aren’t any hidden fees either).
If your case is a success, you’ll pay a small ‘success fee’, which will be deducted from your compensation. But don’t worry about losing much of your payout, as this is a nominal percentage capped by law, meaning you walk away with the compensation you deserve.
As our panel of personal injury lawyers always works on a No Win No Fee basis, you can focus on recovery while we make your claim for you. For more information on our services, please speak to one of our advisors today.
Best Quality Personal Injury Solicitors Can Help You
Given the complexities of the legal system, we advise you to seek help from a personal injury lawyer if you’re looking to claim for a tooth break. Not only could this ease the claims process but boost your chances of winning the compensation you deserve.
If your first instinct is to find a law firm on your local high street, consider whether you could receive a better service elsewhere. As legal services can function virtually, clients can connect with a solicitor regardless of their location. Therefore, you could be restricting your claim’s chances of success by confining your search to your local area.
We recommend using online reviews to narrow your search for legal help. They offer first-hand experiences from past clients and allow you to gain insight into which services are recommended (and which services aren’t).
Our panel of personal injury lawyers has a clientele spanning the nation. Providing regular updates via email, telephone and even face-to-face meetings, why not speak to one of our advisors today to see how we could help you?
Speak With Us
Our panel of personal injury lawyers has years of experience handling and valuing claims for a broken tooth. For information on our services, see how we could help you make a claim for a tooth break by getting in touch today:
- Call 0800 408 7827
- Writing to us via our contact form
- Use our live chat feature on your screen
More Helpful Information
Thank you for reading our guide to making a claim for a broken tooth. Below, you can find some further guides you may find useful.
- Find NHS services near you
- An NHS broken bone guide
- Another NHS guide, this time on broken teeth
- £40,000 For a Broken Ankle Injury
- £50,000 For a Broken Arm
- £25,000 For a Broken Rib
Guide by OL
Edited by RI