A PREGNANT Bradford woman has won £23,000 in an out-of-court settlement after suing a dental practice over her treatment.

Suzanne Killip, 25, lost three of her back teeth which her legal team said could have been saved and suffered years of agonising abscesses after not being treated correctly by Dr Ian Christopher Blackmur, who has now retired, and Dr Amanda Mallikarachchi, of the Bingley Dental Practice, Park Road, Bingley.

But both Dr Blackmur and Dr Mallikarachchi did not admit liability over her treatment.

Miss Killip's dental problems began in 2005 when she complained of severe toothache and X-rays showed decay in four of her back teeth.

During the next ten years her dentists at the practice gave her antibiotics for the infection and filled her teeth but the underlying decay was never removed and then spread. This resulted in the teeth rotting so they could not be saved and the eventual extraction of three of her back teeth.

Miss Killip, who lives in Eccleshill, said: "Those teeth could have been saved but because my dentists didn't remove the decay it was allowed to spread and has caused me to have them removed.

"I received bad treatment for seven years, I've got gaping holes in my mouth and I've been to hell and back.

"It was horrific. I used to ring NHS Direct because the pain was so unbearable but what made the whole thing worse was that the dentist didn't ever want to use anaesthetic so I used to suffer the treatment with no pain relief.

"It was really because I couldn't face another painful session and I had already lost one tooth that I decided to go and visit another dentist and it was them who said the whole thing was a terrible mess."

Her face was so swollen at times that she could not open her eye.

Dr Blackmur removed one of her badly decayed teeth after she suffered an abscess for more than a week.

Miss Killip, who is due to give birth to her first child in July this year, had hundreds of pounds worth of treatment, including the removal of two rotten teeth and multiple root canal treatments.

She added: "I went to the dentist because I was constantly getting abscesses in the side of my face. I was incredibly uncomfortable.

"I went back and forth to the dentist and got various courses of antibiotics but every visit I would get another cyst and an infection. It was like a constant revolving door."

A Bingley Dental Practice spokesman said: "We are pleased that a settlement has now been agreed for the patient and we wish her well for her future treatment.

"We always strive to provide the best possible care for our patients."

Jonathan Owen, solicitor at Dental Law Partnership, who represented Miss Killip, said: "Suzanne is a young woman who deserved to have the right treatment which should have saved the three teeth.

"She's suffered years of pain as a result of the neglect and faces implant replacement therapy and will be visiting the dentist for corrective and restorative treatment for the foreseeable future.

"A woman of 25 should not have needed to have three of her teeth removed and it is severely negligent of the dentists to have allowed this to happen."