Hackney teacher awarded thousands after undiagnosed decay destroyed his trust in NHS dentists

Mr Nicolas Lowe, a 36-year-old secondary school graphic design teacher from Hackney, London, was awarded £6,500 by two former dentists with the help of specialist dental negligence solicitors, the Dental Law Partnership. The payment was given after poor filling treatment and undiagnosed decay in two teeth resulted in both teeth needing root canal treatment and crowns. One of Mr Lowe’s teeth is still so sensitive that he has struggled to eat or drink anything cold for years, even cold water.
Mr Lowe was a patient at Highgate Dental Center in Highgate, where he was first treated by Dr Punit Shah in 2018. “After I went for a routine check-up, Dr Shah put fillings on two of my teeth,” recalls Mr. Lowe. Almost two years later, in February 2020, he had a routine checkup with another dentist at the practice, Dr. Manita Sharma.
“Dr Sharma took some x-rays of my teeth and said nothing abnormal was detected, but months later, I had a throbbing pain in my teeth and had to leave work to go to the dentist again,” Mr Lowe explained. “I went back to Dr. Shah, who found that the fillings he had done had failed and cracked. He took an x-ray which showed extensive decay because food had been trapped under the filling and had been damaged deep into the tooth over the years, but Dr Sharma hadn’t spotted it on the x-rays months before.’
“Dr Shah removed both fillings and removed the decay, before filling them again. But I was still in agony a month later, so I went back and the decay had started again under the fillings. He said they had to do a root canal on one of the teeth or extract it,” Mr Lowe recalled. “I was angry, sad and in pain and didn’t want to go back there again so I went to a different dentist who did my root canal and advised that the other tooth needed one too. But I try to avoid it as much as possible to prolong the nerve removal as it will mean I have another dead tooth.’
Frustrated by his experiences, Mr Lowe contacted the Dental Law Partnership in 2021. Further analysis revealed the extent of the poor dental treatment Mr Lowe received from Dr Shah and Dr Sharma. Had satisfactory fillings been initially provided by Dr Shah, these teeth would have been successfully restored and had a good prognosis. If Dr. Sharma had identified and properly treated the sepsis where the x-ray showed clear evidence of it, only a simple filling restoration would have been necessary and extensive restorative treatment would have been avoided. The poor treatment resulted in a root canal and the future loss of one of the teeth that would otherwise have been preserved for the rest of his life, as well as the other tooth needing root canal treatment in the future. Now he faces a lifetime of replacement and maintenance cycles on those teeth.
“The tooth that has a root canal will need a lot of work in the future to make sure it lasts as long as it can before I lose it, and the other one is very sensitive, so I haven’t been able to eat anything cold, like ice cream, for years. Even cold water hurts,” Mr Lowe explained. “The treatment I was given was appalling and I have lost all confidence in NHS dentists. It shouldn’t be when you don’t trust NHS dentists and feel you’ll get better treatment by going private, but that’s how it is now.’
Rebecca McVety of the Dental Law Partnership commented: “The anguish and pain our client experienced was completely unnecessary. If the dentists involved had provided more satisfactory treatment, his problems could have been avoided.”
The Dental Law Partnership took on Mr Lowe’s case in 2021. The case was successfully settled in January 2024 when Mr Lowe was paid £6,500 in an out-of-court settlement. The dentists involved did not admit liability.

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