Region's kids are losing their teeth due to crisis in specialist dental services

by Rob Merrick

CHILDREN are having rotten teeth pulled out unnecessarily because of a “crisis” in specialist services in the region, MPs were told.

An inquiry heard evidence that a growing shortage of paediatric dentistry specialists is forcing youngsters to undergo the traumatic operations under general anesthetic.

Ten children under the age of five have teeth extracted in hospitals across the North-East and North Yorkshire every week, the Northern Echo revealed last year.

They undergo operations for “dental caries” – infections usually caused by eating sugary food and failing to brush teeth properly.

The alarming scale of the problem, across most of England, has triggered an inquiry by the Commons health select committee and evidence of the shortage of paediatric specialists.

Astonishingly, there are none at all across County Durham, Darlington andTeesside - and only four in North Yorkshire.

A consultant at Leeds Dental Institute warned of a “withering” of specialists in recent years, sending children to hospital for extractions that could have been prevented.

Stephen Fayle told the committee: “These children are waiting 18 weeks – four months – to be seen by a specialist and then, in some cases, it’s taking over a year to get them treated. That’s where the crisis is.

“The number of specialists to deal with children, and prevent them needing to come into hospital for general anesthetic or more advanced care, has really dwindled.”

Asked if the shortage had directly led to an increase in tooth extractions in children, Mr Fayle replied: “I truly believe it has, yes.”

There are only 228 specialists across the whole of the UK – a shortfall of more than 300 on the target for one to be in post for every 100,000 people.

Extractions create problems later in life, making it more likely that the children will require expensive orthodontic treatment.

But Dr Barry Cockcroft, the chief dental officer, denied there was a shortage and told the health select committee that the argument was “very simplistic”.

He said: “They are highly-trained and highly-skilled and should be focused on the very complex work that they can do and general dental practitioners can’t.”

The worrying statistics have also sparked fresh calls for fluoride to be added to tap water, to dramatically cut decay.

The number of under-fives admitted to hospital is up to 45 per cent lower in areas where water is fluoridated, official statistics show.

In Hartlepool, where fluoride occurs naturally, 160.8 under-fives per 100,000 have operations – but that rate is three-and-a-half times higher in unfluoridated Middlesbrough (584.7).

Quizzed about fluoridation, Dr Sandra White, of Public Health England (PHE), said: “It’s safe and effective – the cheapest way to get fluoride onto teeth.”

There are nine paediatric dentistry specialists in Tyne and Wear, because many are based in major hospitals.