I was at a concert venue. The band started throwing things into the audience. Someone tried to catch it and elbowed me in the mouth. My mouth bled but I thought everything was fine. Today, the tooth feels a bit loose. It’s it’s probably a dental emergency but I don’t have much money. Can I charge the band for the appointment?
Kevin
Dear Kevin,
Pain Is a Sign of a Dental Emergency
I’m very sorry for the injury to your mouth. Yes, it will require an emergency dental appointment. Whenever there’s a traumatic injury to teeth, your dentist needs to make sure there’s no damage to the pulp, even if there are no visible signs of a problem. If it turns out that there was damage, a root canal treatment is usually done.
However, you’re experiencing signs of your tooth coming loose. You’ll want to have a dentist splint the tooth in some way to keep it stabilized while the ligaments heal. If you mess with it the ligaments can snap, which will lead to losing the tooth and needing an expensive tooth replacement option. That’s definitely NOT what you want.
Who Pays for Emergency Dental Appointments?
When it comes to who pays for your appointment, that’s less clear-cut. I’m not a lawyer, but it doesn’t sound to me like the band is the one responsible for your injury. More likely it was the person catching the item. However, even that could very likely have been a total accident.
If you know who the person is you can let them know what happened to your tooth and ask if they’d be willing to pay for the needed treatment. If they don’t agree and you feel strongly they’re responsible, you could take them to small claims court.
The dentist can only charge the person receiving the treatment unless someone agrees to absorb the charges. However, most dentists are compassionate, especially in the case of emergencies. If you’re worried about covering the costs, I’m sure they’d be willing to work out a payment plan for you.
I hope this helps.
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