Reasons and advice on a numb lip or tongue due to a root canal

Blog submitted by Dane Levy Attorney of www.Dentalmal.com, a provider of legal services for those injured by dental malpractice in California

Root canals are delicate procedures, as it leaves the dentist with little room for error. Temporary or permanent numbness can leave a patient in pain or cause lifelong damage.

The reason why a patient would experience a numb tongue is mainly due to lingual nerve damage during a dental treatment. On the other hand, a numb lip is a result of inferior alveolar nerve damage. Usually patients may feel like their whole mouth is numb, when in fact it affects one side of the lower lip.

In most routine dental procedures, this type of numbness in not permanent. Most cases have seen a complete return of feeling after 20 months or less. This is mainly due to the fact that nerve injuries caused during dental treatment cause the nerve endings to be separated by a very few milimeters. After time, close nerve endings can regenerate.

For a patient to be successful and be awarded damages in dental malpractice cases, the patient should suffer permanent damage. For example, If a dentist performed a root canal on a patient and the root canal overfill resulted in the paste invading the mandibular canal and the nerves, which caused pain and permanent damage. In most cases patients can be awarded damages from $50,000 – $250,000 plus interest.

To receive accurate advice on a dental malpractice lawsuit, it is advisable to get counsel from lawyers who have dealt with dental malpractice cases in the past.

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Anyone who has experienced anything like root canal overfill should consult a lawyer about a dental malpractice suit immediately.