Ben was one of more than 5800 people hospitalised in New Zealand for dog bites in the last 10 years - an average of two hospital admissions every day, the data shows.
More than a third of those hospitalised were children, largely with facial injuries.
"It's horrific, just horrific," Mr Oliver said.
"One bite's too many. Obviously it took us a long time - I don't know if we're fully over it to be honest. We're still very much on our guard when we see big dogs."
Mr Oliver said more needed to be done to prevent other families going through the nightmare.
Legislation needed to be tightened and large dogs should have to wear muzzles in public places, he said.
"Those figures are way too high. I can see the potential for what could happen and how quickly it can happen, so that frightens me.
"Thankfully it could have been a whole lot worse, but it was bad enough. You just read it far too frequently in the news. There's still the potential that what happened to us will happen again."
The new report, titled The Burden of Dogbite Injuries in New Zealand: 2004-2014, was co-authored by Middlemore Hospital plastic surgeon Zachary Moaveni and student Jonny Mair.
It showed a significantly higher rate of dog bites for the New Zealand population than previously reported, with the numbers among the highest reported in Australia, United Kingdom and United States studies.
The highest risk groups were children under 9, Maori and those living in low socio-economic areas.
New Zealand Association of Plastic Surgeons president Sally Langley said the number of dog bites coming through hospital doors had been a concern to plastic surgeons a long time.
"We've been worried for a long time about dog bites in general and in particular the severe dog bites in small children in the head and face area, so yes we're very concerned. We thought we ought to do a study to clarify what the numbers were and investigate it."
Ms Langley said the Government needed to pay attention to the figures and put better safety measures and education initiatives in place.
Bark New Zealand director Heather Laanbroek said there was a "huge increase" in children under 12 being bitten by dogs.
The children's charity believes education is the best prevention tool and teaches children and their families the "warning signs" a dog will send before it bites.
Dogs "attacking" children generally tends to occur when there is more than one dog present, she said.
"That's about dog behaviour, that no bylaw is going to address. We believe it's about education around dog behaviour that's going to change the dog bite statistics in New Zealand."
Dog attack warning signs can include:
•Lifting ears
•Stiffening body
•Opening eyes
•Growling
•Lunging forward
