Aspen Dental Management and a dentist argue that a patient caused his own injuries after a tooth extraction by failing to follow the dentist’s recommendation to see an oral surgeon.
Ronald Borth filed the three-count complaint on May 3 against Aspen Dental Management Inc., Alex Wojtyna, D.D.S., and Harold Bean, D.D.S.
Borth alleges he saw Wojtyna at Aspen Dental in Glen Carbon on Feb. 8, 2017, and May 17, 2017, for an extraction and implantation. He then saw Bean at Lake Pointe Dental Group in O’Fallon on June 22, 2017, for a follow up following the extraction procedure.
Borth claims he suffered nerve injury during the procedures.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants failed to provide clinical guidance for their dental providers and failed to provide him with a referral to a neurologist or nerve repair specialist in a timely manner, which would have allowed him to have corrective repair surgery.
Aspen Dental and Wojtyna answered the complaint on Aug. 31 through attorney Alphonse Pranaitis of Rynearson Suess Schnurbusch & Champion LLC in St. Louis.
The defendants deny liability and argue in their affirmative defenses that Borth was contributorily negligent in causing his alleged injuries.
They allege the plaintiff failed to follow the recommendation of Wojtyna to see an oral surgeon or failed to mitigate his damages by seeking the services of an oral surgeon or other medical professional for the problems he allegedly suffered.
Borth is represented by John Hopkins of Gori Julian & Associates PC in Alton.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 18-L-591