Warning: This article contains graphic images.
A Lower Hutt teenager has been left “traumatised” after her lip was sliced open in a dental appointment gone wrong.
The girl’s sister has claimed the 14-year-old had to get a paper towel from the clinic’s reception to stem the bleeding herself.
Tira Carroll was already scared of dentist visits and is now even more afraid after the incident at Petone Dental Centre last week, sister Jess Pihema said.
“On Friday she had an appointment for four fillings,” Pihema told the Herald.
“I dropped her off to her appointment, went home, it was going to be a two-hour appointment.”
Some time later, Tira called Pihema to pick her up, saying her appointment was finished.
“She got into the truck and she was holding a paper towel over her mouth and she said ‘oh, the dentist cut me’.”
Thinking she meant it was a minor cut, Pihema asked to see, and was shocked to see Tira’s lip was split badly open.
“From what Tira said, she was looking up and the dentist walked away. The polishing tool was still in her mouth, then she felt it slip and the dentist said ‘oh, I’ve cut you.’
“Tira was numb, obviously she didn’t feel anything. She didn’t really take much notice until she saw the blood dripping from the tool and all over the paper towel on her chest.”
Tira said: “I didn’t think much of it when she done it, but then when I looked in the mirror I was just shocked . . . I just thought, like, ‘oh my God’.”
Pihema said the dentist did not offer any bandage, gauze, “or even a tissue” for the wound, and nobody called Pihema or informed her there had been an incident.
She went into the reception after seeing Tira’s injury and asked to speak to the dentist.
“I said ‘what the f***’s happened to her? You haven’t just cut her, you’ve sliced her lip open. [The dentist] said ‘if you think it needs to be seen you better go now while it’s numb’.”
Pihema was given no forms or incident reports to fill out.
The line for the hospital emergency department was too long, so Pihema took Tira to the after-hours clinic when it opened.
“The doctor there had a look and he couldn’t do what was needed there because of the positioning of the cut, it needed to be stitched up by plastics.”
The pair went to hospital the next day and Tira received four stitches in her lip.
Pihema said she understood accidents happened, but the follow-up from the dental centre was not good enough.
“She is a 14-year-old who is now traumatised, doesn’t want to go to school because her lip’s fat, she got stitches, doesn’t want to go back to the dentist,” she said.
Tira also had only been able to get two of her four fillings and was now fearful of going to the dentist again to get the rest done.
Pihema said she had received an apology from the clinic but questioned its sincerity and felt it was “generic”.
“That doesn’t change the emotional stress, just the fear as well. She was already scared about going to the dentist, it took me ages to [convince her]. She finally agrees and then this happens.”
She said they have lodged a complaint with the Dental Council.
She posted a screenshot to Facebook of an email the clinic sent her later.
“I want to begin by expressing my sincere regret that your sister was injured during her appointment today,” Capital Dental manager Ajay Parmar wrote in the email.
“Please know that we were concerned about Tira’s injury from the outset. Our team worked to stop the bleeding, kept her informed throughout, and closely monitored her wellbeing.
“While she did not appear visibly distressed at the time, we understand that an injury of this nature is upsetting regardless.
“Our intention to maintain a calm environment should never have come across as a lack of care or urgency.”
Parmar said the wound appeared better suited for cosmetic repair rather than dental sutures, which was why they recommended hospital care.
Speaking to the Herald, Parmar said they had reported the incident to the New Zealand Dental Association.
Parmar said it was a “serious” matter and acknowledged the initial communication between the dental centre and the patient and guardian was “not what we would have liked”.
“The clinician was obviously in shock as well with the situation. They have subsequently apologised for that error in communication,” he said.
Parmar said such an incident was “a risk in dentistry, one that isn’t very common but does occur”.
“It’s a sharp instrument, it’s just an accident, really.”
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.