Oral Cancer Misdiagnosis Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Oral cancer is a malignancy that predominantly affects the mouth or tongue. Although not as common as other types of cancers, its potency shouldn’t be underestimated. Given the high mortality rate associated with oral cancer, it underscores the critical role of dental practitioners in its early detection. When there’s a lapse in this responsibility, leading to delayed diagnosis or mismanagement, it can give rise to a medical malpractice lawsuit.

This page is about oral cancer misdiagnosis lawsuits.  Our medical malpractice lawyers explain the type of oral cancer suits that are most viable.  We also look at settlement amounts and jury payouts in these cases and the factors that matter most in getting the highest settlement compensation or jury award possible.

Understanding Oral Cancer

Oral cancer is notorious for its subtle onset. The symptoms are often subtle and painless.  But there can be  catastrophic outcomes if symptoms are unchecked. Yes, risk factors include tobacco and alcohol use. But oral cancer can come without these risk factors, even in younger patients that would seem the least likely to get oral cancer.

The Defendants in Oral Cancer Lawsuits Are Usually Dentists

Every patient visiting a dentist expects to undergo thorough examination — not just for cavities, but also for any signs hinting at malignancies. When a dental professional fails in this regard, the consequences can be life-altering, making them potentially liable for medical malpractice.

The Screening Process

Standard dental protocol necessitates that oral cancer screening be conducted during routine exams, typically every six months. Because early detection of oral cancer is critical. Here’s what this entails:

1. History Taking: The dentist should inquire about habits like tobacco chewing, smoking, and alcohol consumption, which can increase the risk of oral cancer.
2. Physical Examination: This involves a meticulous examination of the mouth, looking for any lesions, discolorations, or abnormalities consistent with early-stage oral cancer.
3. Observation: On spotting a suspicious lesion, the dentist should monitor its progression for about two weeks.
4. Referral: If the lesion doesn’t show signs of healing within this period, an immediate referral to an oral surgeon becomes imperative.  Most lawyers who handle oral cancer misdiagnosis cases have seen these claims. It is too much to ask a dentist to diagnose oral cancer.  But it is not too much to ask them to see the warning signs and refer the patient out to someone who is qualified to make a diagnosis.  Sure, some dentist will recommend further diagnostic procedures such as biopsies or imaging studies to confirm or refute suspicions. But the real bar to climb is getting them to a doctor in the best position to sort it out.
5. Biopsy: The oral surgeon’s primary responsibility is to determine the need for a biopsy. This procedure, involving the removal of a tissue sample from the suspicious site, is a definitive method for cancer detection. The extracted sample is then sent to a pathologist who examines it microscopically for any malignant cells.

Dental Malpractice from Oral Cancer Misdiagnosis

Failure to diagnose or delays in diagnosing oral cancer are not mere oversights. They can be tragic for the patient, dramatically reducing their survival rate. The avenues through which dental malpractice manifests include:

• Negligence in Screening: A casual or rushed examination can easily miss early signs. Regular screenings are essential for timely detection.  Every routine dental check-up mandates a comprehensive oral examination. This includes visual inspection of the mouth’s interiors, including the tongue, cheeks, and throat. Furthermore, a hands-on assessment of the lymph nodes in the neck is crucial. Missing a diagnosis in such routine evaluations is often the foundation of a medical malpractice claim.
• Misdiagnosis: It’s not uncommon for oral cancer to be mistaken for less severe conditions, like canker sores, infections, or benign ulcers. Dentist need to be thinking “when in doubt…”  Such misdiagnoses will allow the malignancy to advance unchecked.
• Delay in Referral or Biopsy: Prolonged monitoring without action, especially when there are clear indicators of a problem, can be detrimental.
• Biopsy Misinterpretation: Errors can occur during the evaluation of biopsy samples. Moreover, if the initial diagnosis isn’t validated or revisited post reporting, it can lead to flawed conclusions.

Each of these missteps prolongs the time taken to initiate appropriate treatment, worsening the prognosis.

• Read more about cancer misdiagnosis lawsuits and their average settlement amounts

The Factors That Drive Oral Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawsuit Compensation

Oral cancer lawsuits, like other medical malpractice claims, can result in varying settlement amounts and jury payouts. Factors that influence the size of these settlements or verdict amounts include:

1. Strength of the Evidence: It all starts here.  You have to be able to prove malpractice and you need to be able to prove that the malpractice would have made a difference for the patient.  Clear, strong evidence linking the medical professional’s negligence to the harm suffered by the patient will increase the potential for a higher settlement or verdict
2. Severity of the Injury: The progression of undiagnosed or misdiagnosed oral cancer can lead to severe complications, such as the need for radical surgeries, disfigurement, loss of speech or taste, or the spread of the cancer to other areas. More severe injuries typically result in higher compensation payouts, all things being equal.
3. Economic Damages: These are quantifiable costs incurred by the plaintiff, including medical bills, rehabilitation costs, and lost wages due to time off work or reduced earning capacity. Juries award compensation for economic damages and use the amount of these losses as a benchmark when determining pain and suffering awards.
4. Non-Economic Damages: These cover intangible harms such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, and loss of consortium. Jurors are like Walmart shoppers.  They will award a lot of money for pain and suffering… but they need to know the plaintiff deserves a high level of compensation before they will award it.  In these cases, the scope of the pain and suffering is often extreme and pain and suffering awards can be in the millions (although there are malpractice caps on these damages in many jurisdiction).
5. Patient’s Age and Life Expectancy: Younger patients who face a lifetime of consequences from the misdiagnosis – or died young with dependents – will receive higher compensation due to the long-term impact on their lives.
6. Defendant’s History: If the dentist or medical professional has a history of malpractice claims or if a pattern of negligence is established, it probably is not admissible at trial.  But it still has a psychological impact on malpractice insurance adjusters who are making the call on settlement offers.
7. Quality of Legal Representation: A skilled attorney makes a different.  Lawyers make a difference by what they do and what their reputation is with the insurance carrier. Because insurance companies know that better lawyers with a history of success are more likely to get larger verdicts and that impacts settlement offers.
8. Jurisdiction and Venue: Some states are known to have juries that award higher damages in personal injury and malpractice cases. But sometimes there are wild regional difference in between counties and cities in a particular state.
9. Patient’s Own Negligence: You have did not do as the doctor suggested, you will share some or all of the blame for the delay in diagnosis.
10. Statutory Caps: Again, some states have limits on the amount of non-economic damages – or even economic damages in some states – that can be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits,.  This limits verdicts which in turn limits settlements.

Oral Cancer Misdiagnosis Verdicts & Settlements

• $1,550,220 Verdict (Pennsylvania 2023): 39-year-old man was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2019 after being seen by the defendant dentist and dental practice in 2017 during which he had an examination and cleaning. During that visit the dentist performed oral cancer screening. During the 2 years between the time of his dental visit and the diagnosis the cancerous tumor quadrupled in size. The lawsuit contended the defendant dentists delayed diagnosis and treatment of his oral cancer, failed to take a CBCT-scan and biopsy of a ‘cyst-like lesion’ all three observed near teeth numbers 5-8, failed to refer him to an oral surgeon and/or endodontist, and misdiagnosed the lesion as horizontal bone loss and/or a bone anomaly, possibly due to a mountain bike accident.
• $2,000,000 Verdict (South Carolina 2021): After being referred by his dentist due to a suspicious tongue lesion, a 61-year-old man consulted an oral surgeon. Dismissing the potential severity, the surgeon wrongfully diagnosed the lesion as a result of a sharp wisdom tooth, neglecting proper cancer screening. Months later, the lesion’s worsening led to its correct diagnosis: stage 3 squamous cell carcinoma. As a result, the patient underwent intense, life-altering treatments. He lost precious years from his career as an airline pilot, faced difficulties in basic functions like eating and speaking, and confronted a potentially shortened lifespan. The oral surgeon’s inadequate care and failure to promptly address the tongue cancer, when it might have been more easily treated, led to unnecessary suffering for the patient. A jury recognized this grave oversight, awarding the patient $2 million, later adjusted to $1.2 million due to comparative fault considerations.
• $800,000 Verdict (Georgia 2019): The plaintiff suffered the loss of part of her gum, three of her front teeth, and the underlying bone as a direct result of a malignant lesion (oral cancer), when the defendant dentist allegedly failed to diagnose the lesion as cancerous. The plaintiff claimed that she went to the defendant for tooth extraction and when she showed him the white lesion on her gums during the visit, he told her that the lesion was nothing to worry about and advised her to leave it alone, failed to screen her for oral cancer, and made no mention of the lesion in the record. The plaintiff apparently returned 13 months later to show the defendant the lesion, which had grown larger and become ulcerated, at which point he took an x-ray of the lesion and again told her to leave it alone.
• $2,385,000 Settlement (New York 2018): An adult female died from oral cancer while under the care of the defendants (a dentist and plastic surgeon). The lawsuit alleged that these medical professionals didn’t correctly identify and address her tongue cancer in time. This delay caused the cancer to spread, resulting in the removal of her tongue and voice box, followed by another operation, which she did not survive. The plaintiff’s estate contended the defendants failed to properly diagnose and treat tongue cancer, leading to its spread, the removal of her tongue and larynx and further surgery that she ultimately did not survive.
• $1,476,000 Verdict (Michigan 2017): Wrongful death action was brought after 67-year-old woman died from oral cancer while under the care of defendants dental surgeon and general dentist. The estate contended the defendants were negligent in failing to make a differential diagnosis that included oral cancer, failing to biopsy the lesion of a known smoker that was in a location extremely common for squamous cell carcinoma, and failing to provide the decedent with proper and necessary medical care, causing the lesion to go undiagnosed and untreated for over two years.
• $385,500 Verdict (Michigan 2016): a 47-year-old male patient, reportedly developed Stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of his left buccal mucosa that metastasized to his lymph nodes and required treatment with excision and revision surgery to his tongue, cheek, jaw and upper torso, as well as radiation. The plaintiff claimed the defendants were negligent and violated the standard of care by failing to assume that he suffered from mouth cancer until it was ruled out by clinical examinations, testing, biopsies and X-rays, failing to refer him to specialists for early diagnosis, and treatment.
• $250,000 Verdict (Missouri 2015): The plaintiff suffered oral cancer approximately seven months after an ulcer inside the right area of his mouth was diagnosed by the defendant’s physician and codefendant pathologist and which required extensive medical and dental procedures. The plaintiff contended that the defendants failed to properly and timely diagnose the condition in its pre-cancer stage when it could have been easily removed and that they failed to provide the proper standard of care. The plaintiff further contended that the defendant failed to obtain a proper specimen for testing and provided improper treatment for his condition.

Hiring a Lawyer for Your Oral Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawsuit

When you suspect that a delayed or missed diagnosis of oral cancer resulted from a dental professional’s negligence, it’s crucial to consult a medical malpractice lawyer. Such cases necessitate a deep understanding of both medical intricacies and legal nuances. An experienced attorney can guide you through:

1. Case Evaluation: Determining the merit of the case based on medical records, expert testimonies, and the standard of care expected. So many of our medical malpractice clients do not know whether they have a case.  Sometimes our lawyers know right away; other times we need medical experts to help us pin down the answer.
2. Filing the Lawsuit: If there’s a genuine case of malpractice, initiating legal proceedings against the negligent dental professional. In most states, to file a malpractice lawsuit, you need to have experts on board before filing suit.
3. Compensation: Helping victims get the rightful compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, and other damages.

Contact Miller & Zois about Allergist or Immunologist Malpractice

If you think you may have a medical malpractice case against a dentist or other healthcare provider for oral cancer misdiagnosis, contact the malpractice attorneys at Miller & Zois at 800-553-8082 or contact us online.