Stone In Biscuit Causes Tooth Damage: How to claim compensation from a manufacturer for injury from foreign objects
Stone in biscuit causing tooth damage claim: Find out how to claim compensation from a manufacturer for biscuits containing foreign objects, how to claim for tooth damage and dental expense with access to free online specialist solicitor help.
Stone in biscuit tooth damage question
I went to a supermarket and purchased a pack of biscuits of a well-known brand. At home when eating the biscuits – I suddenly felt an agonising pain and a crack of my tooth.
I spat the half-chewed biscuit to find a solid stone. I went to see an emergency dentist and he explained that I had badly damaged two of my back teeth, such that they had to be removed.
I contacted the supermarket who put me in touch with the biscuit manufacturer. They asked me to send the “foreign object” in as well as the packaging so they can investigate. I took a photo of the packaging and the stone on my phone and I have retained my purchase receipt.
Can I make a claim, who do I claim against and how much compensation is my claim likely to be worth?
Product Liability Solicitor Response
If you find a hard, foreign object such as a stone (other foreign objects include metal & plastic object, etc) in a biscuit – it is likely that you would have a product liability claim for compensation for the damage to your teeth, dental expenses and other financial loss and expense.
Typically, your claim would be made against the manufacturer of the product (albeit the supermarket may not be able to escape liability). If it was supermarket own brand – you would look primarily to the supermarket, but here it seems to be an external manufacturer.
See our how to prove liability of a manufacturer for a defective product full detailed article.
Thankfully, you retained the important evidence – the foreign object (the stone), the packaging (which will contain the batch number details) and your receipt.
The manufacturer will examine the reports in relation to that batch to see if other customers have experienced similar problems, establish what the stone is and how it could have got into their product.
Be warned – sometimes manufacturers put a notice on their product for words to the effect of “may contain stones” – but as a biscuit is not the type of product you would expect stones to be present in, if the warning was not obvious and in a prominent position, it would be very unlikely to allow the manufacturer to avoid their liability and some product liability law does not permit a producer to avoid liability through such notices as strict liability can apply.
Your receipt is important to prove purchase and your attendance with the emergency dentist is a record of your injuries.
Calculating compensation amounts for damaged teeth
Your claim would be for the pain and suffering for the loss of two healthy teeth, dental expenses (both now and into the future) and any other financial loss and expense as a direct result of the accident.
The amount of compensation and how much compensation you can claim for dental injury is set out in our article dental injury claim payout amounts.
How to make a tooth damage claim from an unexpected stone in a biscuit
We offer a number of specialist solicitor free online & telephone help options – you can discuss the process of making a tooth damage claim direct with one of our specialist solicitors or ask an online question about a stone in a biscuit or other types of manufacturers product liabilities.
