ATTORNEY Shelli Neal has filed a civil complaint in Superior Court against the Seventh-Day Adventist Dental Clinic and Dr. Warren Reed, alleging lack of informed consent and medical malpractice.
Neal is represented by attorney Michael Dotts.
Her lawsuit is asking for damages in an amount to be determined at trial, including damages for pain and suffering.
The lawsuit is also asking for pre-judgment and post-judgment interest as allowed by law; attorney’s fees to the extent that they might be available and for the costs incurred; and for other relief.
According to the lawsuit, Neal had a turned tooth in her lower jaw that bothered her for mostly cosmetic reasons.
Over the years, it turned more, and might have presented a dental health issue so she went to the SDA for treatment of the turned tooth.
On Nov. 22, 2020, Neal entered into an agreement with the SDA Dental Clinic for one of its dentists, Dr. Creed, to make a brace for her to fix the tooth that had turned.
In her discussions with Dr. Creed, the subject of the alignment of Neal’s bite was brought up. Dr. Creed recommended that Neal’s upper teeth should overlap her lower teeth, the lawsuit stated.
Neal said her teeth were already straight, and that members of her family all had a bite alignment where the upper and lower front teeth touched. She said she loved her smile as is (notwithstanding the one tooth that turned), and that she had been biting her nails, lips and opening condiment packets for decades because her top and bottom teeth touched, and she did not want that to change.
She said Dr. Creed advised her that he would not change the bite alignment in his correction of the one turned tooth in her lower jaw.
Neal said she did not want an overbite, underbite, gaps or spaces in her teeth to which Dr. Creed and his dental assistant nodded in acknowledgment, the lawsuit stated.
Based on the treatment plan provided by the SDA Dental Clinic, the tooth was expected to be corrected within six months.
The treatment started on about November 23, 2020 with dental scans and tooth molds. Dr. Creed put braces on her bottom teeth on November 28, 2020.
The treatment was not finished within the time specified in the treatment plan, the lawsuit stated.
About a year after treatment had started, Neal went back to the clinic for a routine adjustment. She said Dr. Creed put braces on her top teeth without any discussion or obtaining her consent.
Neal said she felt something going on with her top teeth and pointed to her teeth while squirming in the chair and trying to get Dr. Creed’s attention.
Once Dr. Creed removed the instruments from Neal’s mouth, she asked what was going on with what Dr. Creed was doing to her top teeth.
She said Dr. Creed didn’t say anything and left the room. Dr. Creed’s dental assistant, Laura, saw him leave the room so she went to ask him about Neal.
“Laura came back looking frustrated, shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders and said she would talk to him,” the lawsuit stated.
Neal said she tried to follow up with Dr. Creed over the next several weeks as to why he had put braces on her top teeth. Dr. Creed did not respond for weeks, the lawsuit stated.
Following the installation of the braces on her top teeth, Neal kept asking why braces were put on the top teeth when her top teeth were already straight, and she had only asked the doctor to correct one tooth on the bottom.
Dr. Creed and the SDA Dental Clinic never provided an explanation, the lawsuit stated.
Each time she questioned the top braces, Neal reminded Dr. Creed and his staff that she had been clear about her desire to maintain her bite and her smile and that she did not want an overbite, underbite, spaces or gaps in her teeth.
Dr. Creed took both the top and bottom braces off before he was able to straighten Neal’s bottom tooth, the lawsuit stated.
When Dr. Creed removed the top and bottom braces on or about June 28, 2022, Neal’s formerly straight top teeth were no longer straight, the lawsuit stated.
“Her two front teeth now formed a V shape with an obvious space between the top and bottom teeth. Both front teeth were protruding out on the sides and not aligned with the other top teeth,” the lawsuit added.
Neal’s bite alignment was also altered. Following the removal of the appliances she discovered that the front teeth overlapped the lower teeth, an alignment she had specifically told Dr. Creed that she did not want, the lawsuit stated.
Neal was given temporary plastic retainers for both her top and bottom teeth.
Not long after her braces were removed, Dr. Creed retired and went off island.
According to the lawsuit, when Dr. Creed returned to Saipan several months later, the temporary retainers no longer fit her teeth as they had shifted. Also, a metal retainer for the lower teeth that the dental clinic ordered did not fit when it arrived because the teeth had shifted.
Neal was never given a permanent metal retainer that fit her teeth, the lawsuit stated.
Neal, “who had gone to Defendants to have a single lower tooth that had turned corrected, ended up with a bite that was misaligned and two crooked front teeth,” the lawsuit stated.
Variety was unable to get a comment from the SDA Dental Clinic.
