A GRAPHIC designer from Newport has been given a £25,000 settlement by four dentists after developing a severe jaw infection.

Warren Dent, 40, from Barrack Hill in Newport, sued the four staff who worked at the former James Hull Dental Care surgery in Cardiff, after he claimed their failure to treat decay in two of his teeth led to hospitalisation and a debilitating bone marrow infection called sclerosing osteomyelitis.

Three of the dentists - Dr Beshika Naidoo, Nach Sanz Martin and Duncan McDonald - did not admit any liability, while Ms Ana Maria De La Torre Montijano denied liability in the case, according to Mr Dent's representatives the Dental Law Partnership (DLP).

But an order from Deputy District Judge Haddleton, sitting at Northampton County Court in October last year, stated the four had to pay the sum of £25,000.

The practice in Pentwyn has now been taken over by the Smiles Dental group which declined to comment or say whether the dentists in question still work there.

Mr Dent lost the two teeth and now needs to have two more removed, but these cannot be replaced until the risk of bone inflammation has passed, according to his representatives.

Mr Dent said he put "complete faith" in the dentists and feels they let him down.

“I went through six years of hell because of them and my ordeal is still far from over," he said. "I’m very glad my case has now been settled so I can try to move on."

Mr Dent first went to have pain in his teeth treated at the Cardiff surgery in 2006 when X-rays showed decay in one tooth and decay underneath a filling in another, but the dentists failed to treat him, say the law firm.

Despite going back with facial swelling, infections and a painful abscess that eventually led to the removal of one of his teeth, the dentists failed to treat Mr Dent appropriately for tooth decay, they said.

He was eventually admitted with to University Hospital Cardiff because of an infection in his jaw in January 2010 and had to undergo 40 sessions of oxygen therapy with more trips to the hospital after antibiotics failed to treat his condition.