How to report your injury

Ask your dentist and or doctor to refer you

The letter or email must contain :

  • Dentist name, address and contact details
  • Doctor name & telephone number
  • Patient details name, date of birth, NHS number if possible address and contact details (also your NHS number).
  • The cause and duration of your nerve injury must be clear
  • Any operative details LA type quantity injection type and number
  • Pain during injection or surgery

URGENT referrals

If nerve section or severe injury is suspected IMMEDIATE referral for exploration and repair is needed. If the nerve injury is related to implant or endodontic treatment the patient may need URGENT treatment.

Other types of nerve injuries require less urgent management. Once the patient has been referred to us we will send the patient a non-urgent appointment. Before the patient comes to the nerve injury clinic make sure that you have provided any relevant letters, results of tests and copies of xrays and scans for us to look at.

We will need to fully understand the treatment details and the patient’s problems and will need to ask further questions and look through provided patient information. In making a diagnosis of trigeminal nerve injury Imagining tests (X-rays), such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scans of the brain, may be conducted. In addition, we may ask you to have some blood tests. These tests are used to eliminate some causes of trigeminal neuralgia, such as lesions, aneurysms or multiple sclerosis which are not usually present in patients with nerve injuries. Once all the examination and tests are completed your surgeon will confirm your diagnosis and give you an explanation of what may be possible to help.

Possible treatments include;

  • Counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy- we have a great team who are able to assess you for individual or group patient sessions. We  ahev both clinical psychology and liaison psychiatrist support.
  • Medication for pain sometime tablets sometimes numbing patches- Often we refer the patient back to their doctor if medication is needed.
  • Surgery is rarely carried out for this condition as it can make patients worse on some occasions After treatment we will ask we ask the patient to complete further questionnaires and feedback forms. We continue to monitor many patients as some injuries do not require actual treatment as they are improving over 3- 6 months.

After the consultation we write letters to the person who referred you to us and you are copied in.

Making a complaint

Once you have permanent nerve injury confirmed you may or may not want to register a complaint. This can be done

If you want specifically to register that you have developed a nerve injury after dental care then use the Care Quality Commission USING THIS LINK

https://www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us/how-complain/complain-about-gp-dentist-or-eye-care

Registering your injury with or without complaint about your clinician this will help national data being collected and assist us with