A trip to the dentist turned tragic when a 9-year-old San Diego girl died just hours after undergoing a root canal by a dentist who had previously been investigated following a near-fatal patient incident.
Silvanna Moreno, a 9-year-old from San Diego, had been dealing with persistent tooth pain since October 2024. After months of discomfort, she was referred to Dreamtime Dentistry in Vista for a root canal on one of her molars.
On March 18, the child was taken to the new clinic for a lengthy three-hour procedure, which included a root canal, crown placement, and the extraction of several decayed teeth – both baby and permanent – according to People.
Unreported fever
The day before the procedure, Silvanna reportedly had experienced a fever, which was resolved with children’s Tylenol.
However, a spokesperson for Dreamtime Dentistry claimed they were unaware of any recent illness, as Itzel de Jesús, Moreno’s mother, “completed and signed a pre-operative check-in form indicating ‘No’ when asked if the patient was sick,” the LA Times reports.
The clinic maintains that if it been informed of the illness, the surgery “would have been rescheduled until the patient was healthy,” per People.
