A China Spring woman who claims a dentist pulled the wrong tooth while she was sedated and then billed her for work that was not performed is suing the dental practice.
Carlla Hill is seeking from $250,000 to $1 million in damages in her lawsuit against Dr. Charles Town and Stonehaven Dental and Orthodontics. The suit was filed Friday in Waco’s 414th State District Court by the Dunnam & Dunnam law firm and the Dumas law firm.
The lawsuit alleges negligence, fraud and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trades Practice Act. The suit also claims “laundry list violations” that allege false, misleading or deceptive acts that reportedly took advantage of Hill “to a grossly unfair degree” and upon which she relied to her detriment.
Calls to Town and messages left for others at Stonehaven Dental, 824 Hewitt Drive, were not returned Tuesday.
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“Pulling the wrong tooth, billing for work not done and trying to lay the blame on a patient under sedation is incredible,” Waco attorney Mason Dunnam said. “Compounding the problem by withholding records, which prevents a patient from getting this fixed, is unbelievable. Thankfully, a jury has the power to hold someone accountable.”
According to the lawsuit, Hill, 44, went to Stonehaven for treatment of a chipped tooth in September 2018.
“Dr. Town recommended pulling teeth, but when Ms. Hill awoke from sedation, she learned that the wrong tooth had been pulled,” the suit alleges. “This was done without her knowledge, permission or effective consent.
“In addition, upon wakening from the procedure, Ms. Hill asked the doctor why he pulled a certain tooth. Town responded that Ms. Hill had woken up during sedation and told him to pull that tooth, something she had no recollection of and something that if true could have only been done while under sedation,” the lawsuit claims.
Hill also was told that Town performed a graft, which she later discovered had not been performed. However, Stonehaven billed Hill’s insurance company for the graft, the lawsuit alleges.
“Ms. Hill’s insurance was also billed for significant other work that was simply not done, including, but not limited to, supposed pulling of wisdom teeth — again, something that had not been done,” the suit states. “Ultimately, defendants left Ms. Hill with incomplete work which will need to be corrected and completed as she can only chew on one side.”
The lawsuit claims that when Hill sought to get her medical records from Town and Stonehaven so she could get treatment elsewhere, the office refused to turn over her records, an alleged violation of Texas law.
This is the second negligence, fraud and Texas Deceptive Trade Practice Act lawsuit filed against Stonehaven in the past four months.
In August, a Waco couple alleged in a lawsuit, also filed in 414th State District Court, that Stonehaven officials induced them to extract their teeth to have implants, falsified credit applications and then left the 70-year-old woman toothless after her insurance would not cover the procedure.
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Staff writer at the Waco Tribune-Herald covering courts and criminal justice. Follow me on Twitter @TSpoonFeed.
