By Deepa Bharath | dbharath@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: January 16, 2019 at 6:11 pm | UPDATED: January 18, 2019 at 2:19 pm
PUBLISHED: January 16, 2019 at 6:11 pm | UPDATED: January 18, 2019 at 2:19 pm
IRVINE — Sixty-five families whose children were infected by rare bacteria when they underwent pulpotomies, or “baby root canals,” at an Anaheim clinic two years ago filed a lawsuit Wednesday, Jan. 16, naming the clinic, its operators, the company that installs and maintains water filtration systems, and several dentists.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, alleges that Children’s Dental Group and dentists who provided services there performed hundreds if not thousands of unnecessary pulpotomies on children. Potentially deadly Mycobacterium abscesses was found in several samples the county’s Health Care Agency took from the clinic’s water system.
The children, ages 3 to 9, all underwent pulpotomies at the clinic between April and July 2016. In all, 500 children underwent the procedure during that time.
Children’s Dental Group has since become part of Western Dental. The clinic in question on East Lincoln Avenue is not owned or operated by Western Dental, but has changed hands.
So far, 150 families have filed lawsuits against the clinic and the number is expected to grow, said Dan Hodes, Irvine-based medical malpractice lawyer who is representing the children and their families.
57 children who underwent baby tooth root canals, orpulpotomies, at Children’s Dental Group have been hospitalized – October 27, 2016
Anaheim dental clinic ordered to stop using water after 10 kids hospitalized – September 16, 2016
