A South Carolina woman has won a $2 million jury verdict against a Florence dental clinic that mistakenly pulled 16 of her teeth.
Elizabeth Smith, 28, of Sumter went to the Sexton Dental Clinic in Florence in May 2006 to have a cracked tooth repaired. Her lawsuit claimed a dentist at the clinic pulled all of her upper teeth, then covered up the error by falsifying her dental records, according to court documents.
The complaint, filed against Drs. Robert W. Scott, Robert G. Jamison and John R. Clark — all practicing dentists at Sexton — said they recommended extracting two teeth in addition to the cracked tooth, but ended up removing all 16 of Smith’s upper teeth without a medical basis for the extraction.
Smith alleged the dentists covered up the mistake by changing her dental chart.
State court records in Florence indicate the jury returned the award late last week.
One of Smith’s lawyers, Robert Ransom, said she plans to have restorative surgery as soon as possible. That’s estimated to cost about $80,000.
Clinic attorney Saunders Bridges says he is considering an appeal.
The clinic’s former attorney, Mike Nunn, who is now the public information officer for the Florence County Sheriff’s Office, responded to Smith’s allegations in court documents that his clients were guilty of no wrongdoing in regard to either the extraction of the 16 teeth or in the record keeping.
Sexton Dental Clinic CEO Ruan Westraad denied the allegations of wrongdoing in a February 2008 interview with the Morning News.
Westraad said he felt his hands were tied by rules forbidding him to discuss the case, but he thought the charges basically boiled down to a malpractice lawsuit despite the allegations of falsification of records.
“There is a big difference in making an error and falsifying records,” he said. “That’s not true — absolutely not true.”
Jim Knight, director of communications for the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, said in a February 2008 interview with the Morning News that if the S.C. Board of Dentistry, which operated under the auspices of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, received a complaint about any dentist falsifying records, the matter would be taken into serious consideration.
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