An Oregon man is suing his dentist for the cost to fix his now-rotten teeth, after he was allegedly advised to wear braces for 11 years.
Devin Bost, 22, has filed the lawsuit against orthodontist Dr. Brad Chvatal of Oregon-based Chvatal Orthodontics and is asking for 185,000 dollars in damages, which breaks down to 35,100 dollars for corrective oral surgery and other expenses and 150,000 dollars for pain and suffering.
“What I’m told by the experts is, ‘You can’t do this. You can’t keep them on that long. It’s just not done,” CBS News quoted Bost’s attorney, David Hollander, as telling The Oregonian newspaper.
According to the lawsuit, Bost had the braces put on by another orthodontist and started seeing Chvatal in August 1997, when he was living in the Eugene, Oregon, area.
Although he didn’t visit as often as recommended, he did go visit his orthodontist from time to time.
It wasn’t until June 2008 that he reportedly “received an urgent phone call from (Chvatal’s office) that he needed to have the braces removed immediately.”
As a result of wearing the braces for so long, Bost had suffered serious tooth decay and periodontal disease, and some of his rotten teeth have to be pulled out and replaced by implants, but others cannot be replaced because they had rotted to the jaw, his lawyer said.
The reported time period meant that he would have worn his braces from elementary school until he graduated high school.
According to Hollander and Bost’s mother - who is a medical doctor - didn’t notice anything amiss.
“We aren’t really sure what happened,” Hollander said.
The American Association of Orthodontics recommends that kids visit the orthodontist for a check-up no later than 7.
Most patients begin treatment between 9 and 14 and people who need braces typically wear them for one to three years, American Association of Orthodontists president Dr. John F. Buzzatto said.
However, Chvatal told the publication that it’s impossible that he started seeing Bost in 1997, as he had been licensed with the Oregon Board of Dentistry since 1997, but was only licensed as an orthodontist in 2002.