Tooth Extraction – root and amalgam left inside gum

Dental advice wanted – Tooth extraction

In February 2010 I had a right premolar extracted and before the procedure I did tell the dentist that my teeth did not come out easily. However, he assured me that all would be well and then gave me the local anaesthetic. While extracting the tooth I told him he was hurting me but he just said I was doing well and I thought the tooth had come out. I returned a week later to tell him I was still in pain but he said to leave things alone and it would settle down. As he didn’t seem at all interested, I then went to a private practice where the site of the extraction was X-rayed. The X-ray showed a root and a piece of dental amalgam lodge in the gum. I was referred to a maxillo/facia surgeon at the local hospital where the root was removed and the fragments. However, after several weeks, I was still in pain and so was referred back to hospital as a second X-Ray revealed that the amalgam remained in situ. On my second hospital visit the surgeon said that he did not want to go poking around to get the amalgam as it is sitting on a big nerve. He opened my gum and smoothed part of my jawbone that was sensitive but, five weeks after, I am still in pain and cannot wear the partial bottom denture I had made. I am not litigious but I feel that the first dentist made a complete hash of the extraction and I have been left with pain for life. Do you think that the extraction was badly done or that it is just a case of a tooth which was bad to remove.