A student has been awarded a £20,000 payout after her dentist mistakenly extracted the wrong tooth during an operation.

Courtney Monksfield, from Faversham, was left with an unnecessary gap after a healthy tooth was taken out under anaesthetic seven years ago.

In December 2015, her dentist, based in Margate, advised her she would need to undergo two extractions to rectify overcrowding in her top jaw, which she would need a hospital referral for.

However, she said this took 12 months to complete after she and her mum repeatedly chased it up.

Miss Monksfield, who was 13 at the time, attended hospital in May 2017, where her teeth were extracted under general anaesthetic.

But it was not until a follow-up appointment that it became clear she'd had a completely healthy tooth removed due to an admin error at the practice.

The referral stated one upper and one lower tooth needed to be removed instead of the two upper teeth, which should have been noted.

An x-ray photo shows the gap created by the wrong extraction for the youngster.

Now aged 20, she has been awarded the five-figure payout after the dentist made a partial admission and settled out of court.

The incident happened while Miss Monksfield was a patient at the dental practice between 2015 and 2018.

The archaeology and forensics student said: “In my follow-up appointment after the extractions, the error that had been made became apparent.

"I was so shocked when I realised a completely healthy tooth had been taken out.

"It was not a nice feeling and there were so many unknowns about what would happen next.

“I’d been left with a gap in my bottom jaw that shouldn’t have been there at all.”

Following months of consultations, Courtney underwent an operation which involved another tooth being removed and transplanted into the gap.

The student also underwent lower brace therapy, but insists the transplanted tooth is unlikely to have a long-term prognosis as she has suffered infections and decay.

It is therefore likely she will need an implant in the future.

She added: “For three months after this transplant surgery, I experienced numbness in my lower lip which meant I had to constantly drink through a straw to avoid dribbling and it also affected my diet.

“I missed a lot of school to attend appointments, [so] the whole experience was so disruptive.”

Lawyers from the Dental Law Partnership found there were also further errors in the referral letter.

Solicitor Amanda Anson said: “The distress, pain and inconvenience our client has experienced was completely unnecessary.

"If the dentist involved had provided the correct referral, her problems could have been avoided.”