'Dentists missed cysts in my mouth and left me with lifetime of pain'

A Brit dad has said his life was ruined after a botched dental nightmare has caused him a lifetime of pain - with cystic flare-ups leaving him scared of anyone coming near his mouth.

Steven Rahman has claimed painful cysts growing out of his jaw were repeatedly missed by his London dental practice of more than 15 years. The 53-year-old from St Ives, Hampshire, said pain caused by the cysts became so severe that he had to undergo hospital surgery and feared his jaw would fall out and his teeth would crumble.

Even now, Steven says he is unable to eat food properly, has intermittent pain and feels anxious at the thought of anyone coming near his mouth.

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The IT specialist told NeedToKnow. "I couldn't go out and I couldn't work. My face had gotten so big as it swelled up horrifically, so it just ruined my social and professional life. At the same time as all that, the cysts had eaten away at the root of some of my teeth, so I had to have root canals on three teeth. I can't imagine what else would have happened if I hadn't changed practices when I did."

Steven's ordeal first started when he noticed tenderness in his jaw, but was reassured nothing was wrong. Despite paying for private check-ups every six months, the issue was never flagged. It wasn't until he switched practices years later that X-rays revealed the shocking truth two cysts had been growing in his jaw for years.

Steven was forced to undergo complex hospital surgery, including having a plastic tube stitched into his jaw for several weeks to drain one cyst. The operations left his face swollen and tender, his mouth constantly filled with blood and he was unable to eat solid food for weeks. He said: "My whole face and jaw to swell up and I was in so much pain and discomfort.

"I couldn't eat solid food for several weeks so I lost so much weight. My mouth was constantly full of blood so I had to regularly wash it out and I couldn't open my jaw properly."

Even after recovery, the impact was lasting with the dad losing sensation in parts of his jaw, chin and lips. He also struggles to open his mouth fully and suffers painful clicking in his ears. Several teeth required root canals after the cysts damaged their roots, adding to the long and painful ordeal.

Simple tasks like eating, speaking and socialising have become stressful and exhausting. Steven contacted the Dental Law Partnership, where lawyers discovered how the cysts could have been treated much earlier if they had been properly diagnosed back in 2007. In April 2025, the dad was awarded £30,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

The dentist involved denied liability. Steven said: "The whole experience was just so stressful. I still randomly have intermittent jaw pain and I feel that I can't open my jaw wide. This means I can't eat food properly otherwise it feels like my jaw will go out of place, so I have needed to cut food down to bitesize pieces.

"I don't like anyone coming near my head or jaw as I feel it's so fragile and I fear people knocking it. Last year, I had an infection near the three teeth that had root canals and I am concerned that they may need to be extracted in the future. Luckily, they've settled down but I'm just so scared and anxious of needing further dental work or these teeth coming loose and just falling out.

"As a patient who paid to have regular checkups to pre-empt any dental problems for over 20 years, I put my trust in dental professionals. I'm just so disappointed and don't understand how he couldn't have noticed the cysts developing over the years."