LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — For one Las Vegas valley family, a trip to the dentist's office turned into a several-night stay at the hospital.
"You go in thinking that you're in good hands and that your child's going to be safe," said Alison Brasier, attorney for the family involved in the case.
"And so this has been kind of a traumatic event for the whole family."
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That family is now suing Dr. Deep Karan Dhillon and Just for Kids Dentistry and Orthodontics in Centennial Hills. The family claims the dentist failed to take proper precautions to keep their child safe during a routine dental procedure.
"For unknown reasons at this point, a spark was created in her mouth from the dental bur, which then caused the throat pack to catch on fire, and unfortunately causing some pretty severe burns," said Brasier.
According to the lawsuit, those burns landed the then 5-year-old girl in the hospital for several days.
Brasier says in the case of most routine procedures, the conditions could make for a perfect, unsafe, storm inside a patient's mouth if the dentist isn't careful.
"You have, if you're under sedation, oxygen coming through, you've got usually cotton or other flammable material in your mouth," said Braiser.
"And then you have these tools that can become overheated if proper precautions aren't taken. And if those overheated tools cause anything to spark, you really have the perfect storm for what happened in this case."
Brasier said the girl, who is now 6, is doing well physically and they don't expect her injuries to be lifelong.
"Really they just want to prevent this from happening to other people and make sure that if something does happen that the parties that are responsible are held accountable," said Brasier.
The lawyer representing Dr. Dhillon said it is not the firm's practice to comment on pending claims.
We reached out to the Board of Dental Examiners for comment and have not heard back.
