A patient has a permanently disfigured mouth due to her dentist accidentally filling it with bleach during a routine procedure.

Claire Shorrock was receiving a routine root canal treatment when her face ballooned up, subsequently resulting in being rushed to hospital in “significant distress”.

It transpired that the dentist had failed to put a preventative guard in her mouth prior to the procedure, which meant that sodium hypochlorite, a type of bleach, went straight into the tissues within her mouth during dental treatment.

Claire said:

“I still have nightmares about my hospital experience and feel extremely nervous about attending the dentist now. The whole experience has affected me so much.

“I can feel my altered lip every time I talk, my speech has changed and I am still dealing with multiple dental issues caused by these errors, including the gaps left in my mouth following the extractions which will require costly implants.

Claire suffered “extreme pain and swelling” as a result.

“As soon as the dentist started drilling into my tooth, I was hit by an overwhelming bleach smell and started experiencing shooting pain in my face,” Claire said.

“It was absolutely unbearable and I couldn’t help screaming.

“The dentist thought I had gone into anaphylactic shock as my face started swelling so quickly, and I was sent to hospital in an ambulance.

“I was kept in overnight and I was unable to eat because the pain and swelling was so severe.”

Claire had suffered “severe burn reaction” to the sodium hypochlorite solution.

“The bleach had entered my tissue because the required preventative guards and checks had not been made,” she said.

“I had to go home the next day with my face still extremely swollen, which was the worst thing ever as my young children, one of whom is autistic, found my face terrifying and I was reduced to wearing a Covid mask at home to hide the swelling.”

The infection eventually cleared and the swelling went down, but Claire says that the resulting damage has led to the permanent alteration of her lip. She has also lost several teeth and has been told that more may follow in future.

Claire took legal action and won £14,500 in compensation, and neither dentist involved in her treatment admitted liability.

My two-penneth

What a horrible story! I am very glad to hear that Claire at least managed to get some compensation to help her fund her potential future dental treatment, but it has been at a very dear cost to both her appearance and her newfound fear of going to the dentist.

The worst thing about this story though, if that is indeed possible – is that the dentists at fault are presumably still at large and allowed to potentially mistreat more patients in the future without any recourse.