A 67-year-old woman has been awarded £60,000 from her local dentist after his failure to treat gum disease led to her needing surgery and multiple tooth extractions.

Gail Walton visited Doctor James Rankin at Broken Acre Dental Practice, Slough, regularly every six months over a 20 year period.

He has now left the practice which is under new ownership.

She said: “Dr Rankin always indicated my teeth were in good health. As he was my long-term dentist, I thought that I didn’t have anything to worry about and he knew what he was doing. I trusted him.

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“At one stage I started getting pain at my gums and was prescribed antibiotics by Dr Rankin.

“They seemed to do the trick and I thought that would be the end of it.”

But Mrs Walton continued to experience problems and Doctor Rankin referred her to a specialist, who was shocked by what he found.

She said: "He said it didn’t look like I’d been having regular check-ups due to the state of my teeth.

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“He diagnosed gum disease and said I would need to have some of my teeth extracted as soon as possible, as well as further dental treatment. I was in complete shock as it felt like the diagnosis had come completely out of the blue.”

Mrs Walton contacted the Dental Law Partnership. Analysis of her dental records revealed that Dr Rankin had failed to carry out adequate dental examinations and diagnose gum disease in a timely manner resulting in bone loss and loss of teeth.

Mrs Walton said: “The whole ordeal has been absolutely horrific.

“I had to have several teeth extracted and a denture put in, which really affected my mental health. I’ve also had surgery on my gums and three lots of bone grafting surgery, all of which were horrendous. The cost of it all has been colossal, with further costs inevitable as I’ve still got to have further extractions and procedures And it is all because Dr Rankin didn’t do his job properly.”

The Dental Law Partnership took on Mrs Walton’s case in 2018. It was settled in 2020 when the dentist paid £60,000 in an out of court settlement. Dr. Rankin admitted liability.

*The practice is under new ownership and management now - under practice principal Doctor Davinder Malli.