Saudi dentist faces “tooth for tooth” ordeal

What would you do if you visit a dentist and had the wrong tooth removed. The most likely decision is that you will sue the doctor.

But that was not the case with a Saudi patient who wants to see one of the dentist’s teeth extracted on the basis of “tooth for tooth.”

Imad Al Zahrani said he had suffered from excruciating pains since he had visited the dentist in the central town of Onaiza.

He said the dentist made a mistake when he extracted the wrong tooth, causing severe inflammation in the gum for several weeks.

Zahrani told the Arabic language daily Ajel that he had tried to report the dentist to medical authorities and to his clinic management but they did not take action.

“I went to court and filed a case asking for the enforcement of the ‘tooth for tooth’ rule…I want the court to order one of the dentist’s teeth removed,” he said.

The paper did not say whether the court had started hearing the case but quoted an Islamic scholar as saying Zahrani’s request is not permissible in Islam.

“Zahrani has the legal right to demand damages but he can not ask for the extraction of the dentist’s tooth because what the dentist had done was not deliberate,” said Sheikh Yousuf al Aqel, a professor at the Sharia and Islamic Studies college in the central province of Qasseem.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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