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Essex dentist pays five number figure to settle maltreatment case

Hancock underwent the ominous procedure in 2013. (Photograph: botazsolti/Shutterstock)
Dental Tribune International

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 30 June 2015

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CHELMSFORD, UK: A dentist from Benfleet in Essex is reported to have paid an amount of £16,000 to settle a lawsuit by a former patient over allegations of maltreatment. Charges against him included having damaged the facial nerves of the 49-year-old civil servant, Graham Hancock, during a third molar extraction at his dental practice in Chelmsford.

Hancock told the Essex Chronicle that he had suffered from continuous facial pain, numbness and loss of taste after having undergone the procedure in late 2013.

After his condition worsened, he was sent to King’s College Hospital in London for specialist treatment.

The case was taken to court after other oral surgeons found the dentist’s work to have been unprofessional. Among other things, he failed to take a radiograph to identify the risks of the procedure and to inform the patient of other treatment options, Hancock’s solicitors said.

Currently working at a dental practice in Basildon, the dentist is reported to have not admitted liability despite having agreed to pay the five-figure settlement.

He has also been under surveillance by the General Dental Council on several charges of misconduct and poor professional performance, including allegations of not having maintained appropriate standards of infection control and having exposed patients to dental panoramic radiography without justification while working at his former practice in Southend-on-Sea between September 2010 and October 2012.

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