Expert discipline
Restorative dentistry expert witnesses
The discipline that rebuilds a damaged dentition, and therefore the discipline that costs it over a lifetime.
What the discipline covers
The speciality that restores and replaces teeth.
The speciality
Restorative dentistry
A recognised GDC speciality concerned with restoring and replacing teeth. A restorative specialist may hold a certificate spanning the narrower fields within it.
Common instructionCost-of-future-care schedules in trauma and negligence claims.
The narrower fields
Endodontics, periodontics and prosthodontics
Three narrower specialities sit within restorative dentistry. Where the question is confined to one of them, the monospecialist may be the closer match.
Common instructionA question confined to root canal, gum or prosthetic work.
Instruction scope
What these experts report on.
Crown and bridge failure
Preparation, fit and margins, and the consequences for the tooth beneath.
Cosmetic and veneer disputes
Including irreversible preparation of otherwise healthy teeth.
The prosthetic future of a traumatised dentition
What replacement and maintenance a damaged mouth will require after injury.
Cost of future care schedules
A costed schedule of treatment and replacement across the claimant’s expected lifetime.
Implant restoration
Where the prosthetic design rather than the surgical placement is in issue.
How we match
What the mouth will need, or what the surgery did.
A restorative specialist where the question is what the mouth will need. An oral surgeon or OMFS consultant where the question is what the surgery did.
In trauma claims those are two different reports, and we say so before you instruct rather than after.
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01
What the mouth will need
Restorative specialist
The prognosis for each tooth and the costed schedule of treatment that follows.
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02
What the surgery did
Oral surgeon or OMFS
Where the question is the surgery performed rather than the restoration required.
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03
Trauma claims
More than one expert
Surgery and restoration are two reports, identified before the instruction is placed.
The report you receive
The prognosis, and the schedule that follows it.
The restorative work
The treatment performed, or the treatment the mouth now requires.
The prognosis
The likely outcome for each affected tooth.
The costed schedule
The treatment and replacement that will follow, across a lifetime.
Why solicitors instruct us
The schedule is where the money is.
The whole schedule
A restorative expert who stops at the first rebuild has undervalued the claim, sometimes by a multiple. The schedule runs across the claimant’s lifetime.
Failure is a cycle, not an event
Restorations have a finite life. The schedule should say how many times each will be replaced.
A named case manager
One point of contact coordinates the instruction, expert correspondence and delivery of the report.
FAQs
Commonly asked questions
Restores and replaces teeth. The speciality encompasses the narrower fields of endodontics, periodontics and prosthodontics.
A restorative specialist or prosthodontist. Surgeons report on surgery; restorative dentists report on what the mouth will need afterwards.
Yes, and it is one of the three narrower fields that sit within restorative dentistry.
Yes, and as single joint expert. The duty to the court is unchanged.
Discuss an instruction