Professor Paul Tipton
1. How would you deal with negligence, whiplash and general accident cases differently? Do any of those have different requirements when producing a medico-legal report?
Negligence cases take the most amount of time and are often very, very complex involving multiple dentists over a period of time during which the patient was treated. This is especially so in the area of periodontal disease where lack of care, lack of treatments and diagnoses may have been going on for a decade or more and the patient has seen multiple dentists or who have continued to non-diagnose the disease process and to not treat it which is kind of complex then to apportion the negligence percentage to each of the dentists involved in the case. The most important factor which is often overlookedby some experts is the issue of causation and understanding that it is then not enough just to deal with liability for the case to have merit General whiplash and accident cases are far more easy and are reflected in the fact that the reports are cheaper to produce and are often of a more factual nature
| BDS, MSc, DGDP RCS, Dip Rest Dent, Dip Imp Pros, Dip Pros, Dip Aesth Dent Specialist in Prosthodontics & Expert Witness London | Manchester
Professor Paul Tipton is a leading authority in UK Dentistry. Regularly featured in the Dentistry’s Top 50 Most Influential People in Dentistry, he has been a pioneering figure in the industry. In addition to being a specialist in Prosthodontics since 1999, he has been in private practice for over 30 years and is currently Clinical Director of T Clinics in Manchester and London A keynote speaker at dental conferences around the world, Professor Tipton has lectured at home and abroad throughout his professional life including Australia, the US, Dubai, South Africa, Singapore and India. He is the founder of Tipton Training Ltd which has seen over 3500 UK dentists pass through many of his one year courses in Restorative, Aesthetic and Implant Dentistry.
Professor Tipton has assembled a team of dental expert witnesses who work with him at T Clinics nationwide All areas of Dentistry are covered including General
Dentistry, NHS and Private, Cosmetic and Restorative Dentistry, Implantology, Oral Surgery, Orthodontics, Periodontics and Endodontics Experts range from
experienced Private Practitioners to those with Masters degrees that limit their practice to special areas of Dentistry, to Specialists, Consultants and Professors and span across the whole of the UK All experts write the highest quality of reports in all fields ranging from Personal Injury to Road Traffic Accidents to Clinical Negligence
2. How have you seen dental education change over the years? Do you think that this has affected the occurrence of legal cases?
Dental education has changed massively over the years and I have been involved in it very closely with my company Tipton Training. We have trained dentists over the last 20 years both in the UK and abroad in some of the complex issues of the newer techniques in dentistry Due to government cutbacks and lack of funding, often now some of the newer graduates are graduating from dental school without basic knowledge and without having performed some of the basic dental tasks in sufficient numbers to be proficient. This then leads to a lack of confidence on the dentist’s part which can be reflected in the quality of treatment that is provided.
3. Throughout your years of experience as an expert, what common mistakes do other dental professionals make which does have the potential to lead to losses:
The second most common cause of negligence is then due to tooth extraction where it has not been explained to the patient that there are other options which could lead to the tooth being saved. The patient is then not fully informed of other treatment options and if they had been fully informed they would have taken another route which would have led to the tooth being treated. Again, once the tooth has been removed the usual replacement is with the dental implant and a single tooth replacement is often in the region of £3,000 to £4,000.
The newer types of dental negligence which we are seeing more and more is to do with complex treatments for which the dental practitioner is either inadequately trained or he has not given the patient a reasonable estimate of the costs and the outcome together with the pros and cons of such treatment. Here the more expensive treatments include dental implants, cosmetic dentistry with veneers, etc., and also short-term orthodontics.
Patients are very often disappointed when having veneers or crowns placed that the end result does not match their expectations which can again then lead to a claim. Most dentists often do not complete enough diagnostic work in advance of treatment so that the end result can be easily previewed by patients and amended as required. Dental implants have a failure rate and this is often overlooked when placing dental implants. The expected failure rate has always been in the region of 5% in the lower jaw and 10% in the upper jaw. More recently, however, there is peri-implantitis disease which has led to an increase in the failure rates in some patients Again this is often overlooked during the treatment planning stage The patients are on the assumption that their implants will last them a lifetime.
Short-term Orthodontics can not only improve the patient’s appearance but can also provide problems with the patient’s bite in the long term and this can lead to claims due to poor function or to problems with the bite leading to problems with the temporomandibular joints and treatment being required in order to treat the temporomandibular joints.
Award winning
4. What advise do you have for solicitors when choosing dental experts?
The choice of dental expert should be based on the understanding and knowledge of their field and certainly, expertise should be of a minimum an established private practitioner who has over 10 years of general dental practice Alternatively, dentists who have gone on to have further education in a particular field, such as Master’s degrees or Specialists in Periodontics, Endodontics, Orthodontics, Prosthodontics, General Dentistry and Implantology, and finally to Professors or Consultants when required It is also important to have continuity when choosing an expert and knowing that they have been through adequate training in the expert witness field and have enough experience in that field to write reports which are legible, easy to read and precise, and that they understand a basic knowledge of the legal system so as to help the court reach its opinion if required. I would also suggest that having a nationwide panel of experts who are all trained to the same standard and degree and whose reports have a similar if not identical makeup makes life easier for the solicitor and barrister when dealing with a large number of cases We at LegalMEx employ experienced general dental practitioners, dentists with Master’s degree in their chosen field, Specialist Consultants and Professors in all areas of general and specialist dentistry and also on a nationwide basis so continuity is guaranteed.
5. Tell me about your specialism of Prosthodontics.
I am a Specialist in Prosthodontics and also a Professor of Restorative and Cosmetic Dentistry in the City of London Dental School. Prosthodontics is that speciality which deals with the replacement of teeth and this can be via crowns, veneers, bridges and implants. Restorative dentistry entails not only prosthodontics but also periodontics, prosthetics and endodontics and cosmetic dentistry includes aesthetic dentistry and again veneers, crowns, implants, bridgework, all of a cosmetic nature. Prosthodontics would also include treatment of the temporomandibular joints and bite. This treatment is often wholly performed by dentists who have inadequate training in the field of occlusion(bite). Being a specialist in Prosthodontics and a Professor of Restorative and Cosmetic Dentistry gives me an overall view of all the fields involved in Restorative, Cosmetic and General Dentistry which is essential when writing reports and coming to opinions as to plans and treatments
