Condition
Retained root expert reports
Independent opinion on whether a root left behind was a considered decision or an unrecognised failure.
Breach of duty
The standard, and an important distinction
Leaving a root fragment is not automatically negligent. Deliberately retaining roots — a coronectomy — is a recognised technique used to avoid injuring the inferior alveolar nerve, and it can be the safer choice.
The distinction that matters is between a root left deliberately and recorded, and a root left unknowingly. The first is a clinical judgement. The second is a failure to check, and it usually becomes a claim when the patient discovers it later.
Clinical evidence
How the failure happens
No post-operative check
The extracted tooth never examined to confirm it came out whole.
No radiograph where one was indicated
A fractured root suspected and never imaged.
The patient not told
A retained root known about and not disclosed.
No follow-up plan
A root deliberately retained, with no review arranged.
Infection or migration
A retained fragment that becomes symptomatic, or that migrates.
The counterfactual
Causation, and what the claim is worth
Many retained roots remain symptom-free for life. Where nothing has gone wrong, damages are modest.
The claim becomes substantial when the fragment causes infection, when its later removal is more difficult than the original extraction would have been, or when the patient underwent further surgery that competent care would have avoided. Where a root was retained deliberately and disclosed, there is generally no claim at all.
The expert must therefore establish what was known, what was recorded, and what was told to the patient — before addressing consequences.
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01
Was the retention deliberate and recorded?
A considered coronectomy, or a fragment left unknowingly.
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02
Was the patient told?
Disclosure at the time, or discovery later.
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03
What consequences followed?
Infection, difficult later removal, or further surgery competent care would have avoided.
Discipline-led matching
The expert we match
Oral surgeon
On whether the retention was a clinical decision, whether it was recorded, and whether it was disclosed.
Oral and maxillofacial surgeon
Where the fragment sits close to the inferior alveolar nerve or the antrum.
Where the instruction crosses those boundaries, we identify the required disciplines before you instruct and provide the proposed CV.
Expert evidence
The report you receive
Why solicitors instruct us
Not every retained root is a claim.
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01
We screen before you commit
A screening report will tell you when the retention was proper, before you commit to a liability report that will not succeed.
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02
Consent and disclosure are the battleground
We match an expert who reads the records for what the patient was told, not only for what was done.
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03
Keep one case-management contact
A named case manager coordinates the instruction, the proposed CV and the agreed report scope, and tells you where it stands before you ask.
FAQs
Commonly asked questions
No. Roots are sometimes retained deliberately to protect the nerve. The failure is leaving one unknowingly, or not telling the patient.
Removal of the crown of a tooth with the roots deliberately left in place, to avoid nerve injury.
Damages are limited. The claim may still concern the further surgery required to remove the fragment.
The clinical records, the consent documentation, and radiographs taken before and after the extraction.
Discuss an instruction