How to Value Tooth Damage for a Personal Injury Claim

Whenever you suffer injuries as a result of someone else's intentional wrongful action or negligent behavior, personal injury claims may be made in order to ensure you are compensated for your damages. This is true for tooth damage as well. If you have suffered an injury to your teeth that has cost you pain or money, you should be able to make a claim for it. The value of what you can recover will vary depending on a number of factors. 

Valuing a Tooth Injury

The first major factor that goes into play in determining what you may receive for an injury to your teeth is a medical diagnosis of just how serious your injuries are. Having some type of medical evidence of your injuries is essential to recovering anything, and the nature and seriousness of the injuries is going to largely dictate just how much you are entitled to. 

Typically, if a personal injury case were to go to court and the defendant was found liable in court, there are several different factors that the jury would look at in assessing how much the injury case is worth. These factors include:

• Medical bills: This can include dental bills necessary to treat the tooth injury. It should include past and future bills so if you lost a tooth and had to have a crown put in, you should include the cost of the crown and also the estimated cost of any replacements or upkeep you need for the crown over the course of your life.
• Lost wages: If you had to miss work because of the injury or to get medical care for the injury, compensation should be provided for that lost income.
• Pain and suffering: Putting a dollar value on how much your tooth injury caused you to suffer is hard. Sometimes, insurers use a "pain multiplier" to help. This means adding up what you've actually lost in real dollars (lost wages and medical bills) and multiplying them by some number (often, a number between 1.5 and 5).
• Emotional distress: This category can also include other damages such as wrongful death damages or loss of companionship if relevant to the situation. 

While these factors would be considered by a jury in court, they are also helpful in evaluating a settlement offer if you hope to avoid a trial. A settlement is a lump-sum offering where you are paid a certain amount in exchange for giving up your claims against the defendant or insurer. The settlement, if you are to accept it, should include compensation for all these items. 

Other Considerations

In addition to the severity of your injuries, the other key factor that comes into play in valuing your compensation is your state laws for the type of injury you suffered. For example, within 12 "no fault" jurisdictions in the US, you can't sue for car accident cases unless the injuries were serious. This would mean if you lived in one of those states, your only recovery would be for actual losses (medical bills and income) from your personal injury protection. Other states impose limits on non-economic damages, especially for medical malpractice cases, as part of tort reform efforts. Understanding the law is essential to understanding what you are entitled to. 

Getting Help

Personal injury claims should almost always be handled and valued by professionals. Determining what compensation is fair involves a balancing of many different factors and your lawyer can help you to decide what your injury might be worth, and whether you should sue or settle in order to achieve the best possible results.