Decision report 201102613

Summary
Mr C complained that his 14-year-old son (Master A) had six baby teeth extracted by his dentist. At the time the family were told that this was necessary to allow room for his adult teeth to come through. Master A also had an adult molar removed, again to allow space for the rest of his adult teeth to come through. Mr C has now learned that his son has a congenital problem (a condition present at birth) that means he has no further adult teeth to come through. Mr C said that the dentist was wrong to have extracted the teeth when there was no clinical need to do so.

We upheld Mr C's complaints. We found that overall there was a lack of documentation to show what the dentist discussed with him. Although there was no evidence about whether it was clinically appropriate to have extracted Master A's baby teeth, we found that the dentist should have sought specialist orthodontic advice before carrying out the procedure. We found that the adult tooth which was extracted had been heavily filled. However, while it may have been appropriate for the dentist to have extracted it, there was no evidence that a treatment plan had been carried out or that informed consent had been obtained.

Recommendations
We recommended that the practice:
• apologise for the failure to obtain an orthodontic opinion prior to the extraction of Master A's baby teeth and for failing to explain his reasons for doing so; and
• apologise for the failure to produce a treatment plan for the extraction and for not obtaining informed consent for the extraction.