A PHARMACIST has been compensated £15,000 after her two dentists failed to identify and treat her tooth decay.

Eleanor Sidlow, from Horwich, was awarded the money from Peter Moss, formerly of Moss Dental Care in Bolton, and Peter Gould, of Cripps Dental Centre at the University of Nottingham.

It came after both failed to diagnose and treat decay of several of her teeth over an six-year period.

She has lost one tooth as a result and will lose another two in the future.

Miss Sidlow said: “I was so upset. It was bad enough that one tooth was causing problems but to find out two of my other teeth might not last much longer was disheartening.

"I’m pleased to be getting the treatment I now need to get better but the whole experience has made it very hard for me to want to trust a dentist again."

The 24-year-old was a patient of Dr Moss, based in Bury Road, since she was aged two but during her time at the University of Nottingham her appointments were split between Dr Moss and Dr Gould.

In December 2011 Miss Sidlow attended an appointment with Dr Gould complaining of pain but it continued when she got home in December so she saw Dr Moss the following week.

Dr Moss placed a filling but Miss Sidlow had to return the following day as the pain had still not gone.

She said: "The pain was so awful. I hoped the filling would fix the problem but I was still in so much pain the next day so had to go back.

"Dr Moss refilled the tooth so I hoped that meant the end of it."

She returned to the university in January 2012 after the Christmas break and went to see Dr Gould, who placed another filling.

In November that year Miss Sidlow was back to see Dr Gould as the pain she was experiencing in her tooth 11 months earlier had returned.

Dr Gould then placed a filling on the tooth that Dr Moss had already filled.

She said: "I’d gone months without any pain. So I just couldn’t understand why it had come back all of a sudden. I started to think that something wasn’t quite right."

She went back to Dr Moss in January 2013 as the pain continued and another filling was placed and then saw Dr Gould in November, who gave her another filling on the same tooth as it had fractured.

But another one of her teeth fractured in April 2014 and she went to see Dr Moss again, who performed root canal treatment on the tooth that had been repeatedly filled in 2012 and 2013.

Miss Sidlow said: "I was relieved to finally get the treatment that I thought I needed to get rid of the pain.

"I’d suffered for over three years and I just wanted it all to be over."

But six months later, Miss Sidlow was back to see Dr Moss when her tooth had fractured again. Dr Moss placed another filling on the tooth a few months later.

After Dr Moss retired and sold the practice, Miss Sidlow continued attending regularly for check-ups as she was still suffering from severe pain in her tooth.

The tooth was eventually taken out in April 2017.

Miss Sidlow said: "It was such an exhausting experience. I’d gone through so much pain to the point that I was almost used to it.

"It was a shame that it had to be removed in the end but I was pleased it was over."

The Dental Law Partnership took on the case in 2016 and it was settled out of court in February this year.

Heather Owen, from the partnership, said: “The distress and pain our client experienced was completely unnecessary.

"If the dentists had identified the issues and carried out the proper treatment in a timely manner then all of her dental problems could have been avoided."