The parents of a Maryland teen who died earlier this year during wisdom tooth surgery have sued the oral surgeon and the anesthetist for medical malpractice.

Jenny Olenick, a 17-year-old junior at Marriotts Ridge High School in Woodstock, Md., died in April from complications during the outpatient procedure performed on 5 million Americans each year.

"It's so hard," Cathy Garger, Olenick's mother, told ABCNews.com. "She was the only one we had."

The civil suit, filed in Howard Country Circuit Court, claims the oral surgeon, Dr. Domenick Coletti, and the anesthiologist, Dr. Krista Michelle Isaacs, were negligent and failed to resuscitate Olenick after her heart rate and blood oxygen level dropped.

Garger and Olenick's father, John, declined to comment on the pending case, but a spokeswoman for the family said they hope to highlight the surgery's risks and the need for better emergency training among dentists and oral surgeons.
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http://news.yahoo.com/parents-sue-te...143224302.html

Wow, this is fucked up. I never realized how dangerous wisdom tooth removal surgery was. I got mine pulled when I was 17 as well, and I remember how much pain I was in (even with the Codeine prescription they gave me to kill the pain) and I even remember getting dizzy while standing up and passing out once after tasting blood in my mouth the next day.

If its really true that there's only a 12 percent chance of a wisdom tooth impaction leading to infections or damage to adjacent teeth (same low chance as getting appendicitis) I would have never volunteered for prophylactic removal in the first place!

Sure is a cash cow for dentists though. $3 billion dollar industry. No wonder they highly recommend it!