A Florida woman filed a lawsuit against an oral surgeon who allegedly left a drill bit burr in her right sinus cavity for over a year. According to the lawsuit, Donna Delgado had been experiencing severe pain, bleeding and dizziness since her surgery in August 2008. A scan at St. Joseph’s Hospital in July 2009 revealed the inch-long burr as the cause of her pain. The lawsuit claims that Delgado had sought medical attention from her oral surgeon on multiple occasions after her surgery, but he declined to help her, telling her the pain was “normal” and demanded she “stop complaining.” The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.  Marlene Sokol, St. Petersburg Times

Before I attended to nursing school, I worked as both a dental assistant and as an orthodontist assistant.  So, I was quite surprised and troubled to see that in this case, the patient follow up was faulty to say the least.  Then to read that upon complaining about her excruciating pain and unusual symptoms after the procedure, that the surgeon didn’t take the simple precaution of x-raying the site, was an astounding incident of sub-par care.  The patient could have had a much worse outcome after having an MRI which can be very painful and dangerous for those with metal in the imaged area.

In my current role as a nurse case manager I have handled dental injuries as a result of a work accident.  In one such case a salesperson was injured when a co-worker punched him.  In another, less extreme, but nonetheless painful case, a store employee was smacked in the face with a door when a co-worker ran through it in a hurry and failed to pay attention to where she was going.

My advice: research your practitioner very carefully before the appointment, and if you feel something is amiss…get a second opinion!