10,000 children a year hospitalised to extract teeth

The Irish Dental Association (IDA) has claimed that up to 10,000 children per year are being hospitalised for dental extractions because they are not being detected and treated early enough.

The association said the number of under-15s having to be hospitalised is a “national disgrace” and is “an indictment of the slash and burn policy of the previous and current government to oral health policy”.

It said the rate of hospitalisations could be up to five times higher than in Britain.

IDA president Anne Twomey said thousands of young children with chronic dental infection, many of whom require multiple extractions, are waiting up to 12 months for treatment.

“95% of these cases would have been avoidable if they had been detected and treated earlier,” she said.

“The reason they weren’t is because of government cuts to family dental supports since 2010, the constant undermining of what had been a highly effective schools screening service and the fact that too many of our young people have a poor diet containing too much sugar.”

The association says while children should be screened in school in 2nd, 4th and 6th classes, that is not happening in a number of locations. It said the worst areas for school screenings in 6th class only were Galway city and county, Laois, Offaly, Kerry and parts of Co Cork.

“The main reason for the fall-off in screenings is less staff,” it said. “IDA reckons staffing levels are down 20% on 2009 levels.”

The other factor which means children are not being seen by dentists as often is the loss of certain free services which adults used to have under the PRSI scheme. The IDA said that with fewer adults attending, the children were less likely to be brought to the dentist as often or as early.

Dr Twomey warned a tragedy could occur if the HSE does not take action to address the delay of up to 12 months for treatment for serious infections being experienced by some young people. She said the longest waiting times — a year — for general anaesthetic services were in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare after the closure of the walk-in clinic in St James’s Hospital in Dublin. She put waiting periods elsewhere in the country at typically six to nine months.

“We know there are currently over 3,000 children awaiting general anaesthetic services and some of these have been waiting up to a year,” she said.

“The issue is compounded by the fact that dental cases are not included on hospital priority lists, and this results in theatre slots for dental cases being cancelled on a regular basis in favour of other paediatric cases. We are hearing stories of children having to be admitted for IV antibiotics for oral infection. Our concern is that general anaesthetic services for dentistry will not become a priority until a child has a serious outcome from dental infection.”