Toothache turns into nightmare: woman wins 25,000 euros from dentist who fled the country

Afra Loos walked into a dental office in March 2024 with a toothache and walked out with a nightmare that took more than a year, multiple surgeries, and twenty-seven kilograms of weight loss to even begin to heal.

Her regular dentist didn't have time, so she was referred to Tandartsenpraktijk Nieuwe Steen in Hoorn. During her first visit, she says, the dentist discovered her jaw was full of infections and pulled all of her teeth. Three weeks later she noticed a hole between her jaw and her sinus cavity. "At one point I smelled this awful smell whenever I bent over. I couldn't place it. It turned out to be a huge infection in my jaw," she said.

After four and a half months of repeated treatments, Loos asked for a referral to a maxillofacial surgeon. In February 2025 she underwent a major operation in which muscle tissue was taken via her skull to close the gap. Her mouth no longer opens fully and her sense of taste has permanently changed.

Loos filed a complaint and says the dentist tried to talk her out of it, telling her she wouldn't win. The Dutch dental disputes body SGIM eventually ruled in her favor, awarding her the maximum compensation of 25,000 euros and concluding that the heavy operation could have been prevented with better checks, proper treatment, or an earlier referral to a specialist.

Whether she ever sees the money is another matter. The practice was declared bankrupt on August 5, and the responsible dentist, Joseph Joshua, has since moved to South Africa. He disputes her account and claims she failed to come back for a follow-up, which Loos denies. The Dutch dentists' association KNMT says cases like this "fortunately hardly ever happen," though its own complaints service received 916 complaints in 2025 alone.