A MAN is taking legal action after a one-inch drill bit was left in his tooth following a trip to the dentist.

Colin Grey was left in agony and lost his tooth after the fragment of drill was left sticking into his gum.

While on a trip to visit his mother, Mr Grey suffered a painful toothache and had to call an emergency dentist.

Mr Grey went in for root canal work but instead of the pain clearing up, it increased even more.

Twenty-four hours later, when the anaesthetic had worn off, Mr Grey found the drill speared through his tooth and gum.

Mr Grey, 36, from Wideopen, North Tyneside, said: "After the emergency work, every time I was biting on the tooth I was getting a sharp pain.

"Even when the anaesthetic wore off I just shrugged it off at first as being niggly because of the work I had done on it. The drill bit explains it all."

Mr Grey, a sales assistant, who had the treatment on the NHS, is now taking legal action against the Birmingham dentist who carried out the work.

British Dental Association Northern spokesman, John Renshaw, said it was not unusual for tiny bits of drills, possibly around two millimetres to break off and be left in the tooth, but not in larger pieces.

Mr Grey added: "I already hated going to the dentist but this has put me off for life."