Woman awarded compensation after losing all but six teeth after gum disease is undiagnosed for nearly 20 years

Joy Shaw, aged 65, suffered decades of pain, including traumatic incidents where implants she hoped could provide relief fell out of her mouth.

Now, Joy wears dentures, as she has just one natural tooth on the left side of her mouth and five on the right side.

Joy was a patient at a branch of mydentist in Blyde Road, Fir Vale, Sheffield, from 2000 to 2020, and suffered from severe pain, bleeding gums and infections.

Solicitors say their investigation uncovered evidence that Joy could have had gum disease from May 8, 2000, though she was not formally diagnosed until nearly 19 years later, on May 1, 2019.

The practice - which has since shut down - did not properly screen or diagnose Joy for the condition and only provided routine scale and polishing, which is inadequate to treat the disease.

In 2013, after losing five teeth, Joy travelled more than 40 miles from Sheffield to Manchester to get implants at another practice.

But the implants started to fall out, leaving Joy in ‘horrendous pain’ – with the dentist there also failing to warn her of the risks related to her gum disease.

She said: “For years I suffered with symptoms of tooth pain, inflamed and bleeding gums, tenderness, infections and swelling.

“My teeth kept breaking and needed to be restored.

“Alongside this, I later found out that they failed to diagnose and treat decay in two of my teeth.

“I’ve lost multiple teeth which affected my ability to eat properly.

“There was a horrendous amount of pain when each one fell out, and it also really hurt every time I took a bite, so it affected my ability to eat.

“It was all so traumatising.”

Fed up Joy decided to seek legal action over her treatment and she received £35,000 in an out-of-court settlement in July.

However, practice owners at the MyDentist branch, and the dentist who gave her implants have not admitted liability.

Solicitors say with better treatment, 21 of Joy’s teeth could have been saved for life, with decades of suffering and pain avoided.

Joy added: “Due to these decades of poor care, I will lose 21 teeth, and now have a full denture on my upper mouth and a partial denture on my lower mouth.

“I never thought I would end up with dentures so early in life.

“The embarrassment and lack of confidence I experienced when my teeth were dropping out was horrifying.

“I stopped smiling and going out, and my confidence completely fell.

“Now that I have lost so many teeth I will have to learn to smile again.”

Justine Jones of the Dental Law Partnership, which took the legal action on Joy's behalf, said: “The distress and pain our client has experienced was completely unnecessary.

“If the dentists involved had provided more satisfactory treatment, her problems could have been avoided.”

A spokesperson for mydentist said: “We would like to apologise for the experience Ms Shaw had at our Blyde Road practice, which has since closed.

“Providing the highest quality dental care to our patients is our first priority and we regret that, on this rare occasion, it fell below our expectations.”