Can You Recover Compensation From Dental Injuries In A Car Crash?

Dental personal injuries may not be considered as severe or life-threatening as other injuries dealt with in personal injury claims. However, this type of injury can still cause severe damage and deserves compensation. Personal injury claims can be filed against the person liable for these injuries to get compensation for damages like lost wages, medical bills, treatment, and recovery, and pain and suffering.

Head injuries are very common in accidents that cause personal injuries.Traumatic brain injuries are one of the most common injuries involved in personal injury claims and they can also lead to mouth injuries. The blunt force of a hit to the head can easily break a person’s jar, lead to biting of the tongue or knock out teeth. All of these are considered dental injuries.

What Are Dental Injuries?

A dental injury, also known as dental trauma, is any damage to someone’s teeth and their supporting structures. Teeth-related injuries can be debilitating and particularly painful even if they’re generally not life-threatening. This type of injury can require long-term treatment and a long recovery. Dental surgeries, medications, tooth reconstruction or replacement, etc. can be expensive and recovery can take a long time.

A dental injury can involve some type of head and face trauma along with a traumatic brain injury such as a concussion. Sometimes neck injuries like whiplash can go along with dental injuries as well.

What Are The Most Common Dental Injuries Involved In Personal Injury Claims?

Among the most common dental injuries involved in personal injury claims we can find the following:

• Avulsed teeth
• Fractured teeth
• Chipped teeth
• Tooth luxation
• Scratched teeth

What Are Mouth Injuries?

Mouth injuries both on the inside and out often come with dental injuries. These injuries can vary since there can be injuries both inside and out in a number of ways. Mouth injuries also can be more extensive and involve more treatment in the most severe cases. Similar to dental injuries, mouth injuries can be very uncomfortable even in the less severe cases.

What Are The Most Common Mouth Injuries Involved In Personal Injury Claims?

The most common mouth injuries involved in personal injury claims include the following:

• Broken/fractured jaw
• Burns
• Severe contusions
• Lacerations
• Bit tongue
• Puncture wounds
• Loose teeth after car accident

What Are The Common Causes of Dental Injuries in Personal Injury Claims?

Every case involving personal injuries is different and it comes with its own unique damages and circumstances. However, there are clear trends when it comes to the causes of personal injuries like dental injuries. When it comes to dental and mouth injuries, there are some accidents that tend to cause them more than others. A person can suffer a mouth or dental injury in a number of different ways but many personal injury claims involving them tend to happen in the following ways:

• Car and motorcycle accidents
• Slip and fall accidents
• Work accidents

What Kind Of Damages Are Caused By Dental and Mouth Injuries?

It is no surprise that teeth and mouth injuries can inflict severe and serious damages upon those who unfortunately suffer them. Having an injury in the mouth region is not only physical damage. This type of injury is extremely painful since this part of the body is very sensitive. The other issue is that the mouth’s functions can be eliminated or reduced in the process of recovering from the wounds. This means that speaking and eating can get affected in different degrees depending on the circumstances, causing a significant impact on someone’s life.

The issues caused by dental injuries that linger are a whole other issue.  When someone’s mouth function becomes permanently impaired even if it’s not severe, it can affect them mentally, financially, and emotionally (pain and suffering). This can also be said about any disfigurement and scarring that happens because of an injury in the mouth.

Can You Sue If Your Accident Requires Major Dental Work?

Dental work required to repair tooth injuries can be pretty expensive, and of course, painful. However, with personal injury claims, people tend to be more familiar with the medical expenses for broken bones, head injuries, or whiplash and think less about tooth injuries. 

Generally, this is not the type of injury that can actually define if you have a strong personal injury case. On the other hand, the circumstances of the accident are what will determine the weakness or strength of the claim.

Filing a Dental Injury Claim

Suffering from dental injuries because of someone else’s negligence is not something one has to take. If someone else is liable for a dental injury then you can hold them accountable by filing a claim.

For example, a lot of people when they get involved in car accidents can suffer injuries to their face due to the collision, including their mouth. Some people make the mistake of thinking that give this injury is not life-threatening it’s not worth filing a claim over their injuries or their treatment. In some cases, this might be true, but you could be leaving aside other damages that may not have happened to you. A lot of people don’t realize that they are able to seek compensation for their lost wages while they were getting treatment. 

A mouth injury can impact a person’s ability to do their job, their relationships, mental health, and more. These can all be included in a personal injury claim.

Getting Compensation 

Estimating dental compensation amounts accurately can be very difficult for one reason: at court, it will be a jury that will decide how much money the defendant must pay the victim. Some damages, such as medical bills and lost wages can be easy to predict since they are concrete and can be based on proof provided by the victim.

Since most of the victims will already have repaired their dental injuries before going to court, it is very important that the nature of the injuries is documented and that the dentist keeps records of the treatment the victim got. If the victim does a poor job at documenting their dental damage, the defendant could point out that the damage may not have been as severe as the victim wants them to think.

Additionally, dental injuries are usually caused by head injuries in some form, which can increase the perceived value of the injury claim. Insurance adjusters will consider a head injury more severe and serious than a dental one.

Get Help From An Experienced Nevada Personal Injury Attorney

If you or a loved one has suffered from teeth broken in an accident, don’t hesitate and contact Cogburn Law. We will be happy to sit down with you and discuss your damage to teeth claim. Our team will offer some legal options on how to get compensation. Call Cogburn Law today at (702) 747-6000 for a free initial consultation.