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Call for toddlers to see dentist |
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Courtney Trenwith September 24, 2010
Parents have been urged not to just wait until their children start school to take them to a dentist amid reports of 4-year-olds suffering tooth decay.brisbanetimes.com.au revealed yesterday children as young as four were having all of their baby teeth removed because of poor oral health.Hundreds are forced to undergo surgery, and in the worst cases children are put on intravenous antibiotics to save their lives.
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The state’s chief dentist Dr Rhys Thomas said half of the children in Queensland would at some point have tooth decay.‘‘A small percentage’’ would suffer ‘‘extensive’’ problems, which could cause life-long issues.‘‘Occasionally we get [children] ... who need hospitalisation,’’ Dr Thomas said.‘‘It’s very sad when that happens.’’Queensland Health’s chief oral health officer, Dr Thomas said many parents did not take their child to a dentist until they became eligible for the government’s school dental program, which for some was too late.In Queensland, children aged four and over who attend school receive free dental care but only those with a health care card can access the same benefits before they start school.Brisbane paediatric dentist Dr Vivienne Linnett said yesterday it was ‘‘quite amazing’’ that in this day and age some children were still not receiving adequate dental care.Dr Linnett said a lack of parental education and poor affordability were huge contributing factors.She said children were forced to withstand rotting teeth for months or years because their parents could not afford treatment.‘‘They’re putting off the treatment. Some of them just can’t afford it,’’ Dr Linnett said.‘‘[Children] fall through the cracks because parents don’t have private health insurance and don’t have spare cash sitting around.’’Dr Thomas said Queensland had among the best access to dentists in the country, but in most cases it did not kick in until school age.‘‘Most people are tending to wait until they can access our care from age four, which is a bit sad because there’s a very small percentage of children who we’d like to see coming in a lot earlier,’’ Dr Thomas said.‘‘We’d like to have children at least have someone look in their mouth by age of two years old, to pick up those early caries or early childhood decay.’’Despite free dental care being available to pre-schoolers from the poorest families, Dr Thomas said they still had the highest levels of decay.Also, 10 per cent of school aged children never saw a dentist through the government program.‘‘Of the 10 per cent who never come through, it’s assumed that most of them would be seeing their own private dentist but it would be fair to say there’s a very small percentage of people who for various reasons don’t take up the offer of seeing anybody," he said.‘‘It’s a worry for those particular children.’’Dr Thomas said children with ‘‘severe’’ dental decay would be suffering.‘‘There’s issues of pain, issues of abscesses forming, the psychological damage for young children if they’ve got a mouth full of rotten teeth, problems of not being able to chew without discomfort,’’ Dr Thomas said.‘‘As they get older if they’re suffering from extensive tooth decay they can then lose some permanent teeth, which is a life-long problem for them.’’An Ipswich court heard on Tuesday how a nine-year-old girl had 12 of her teeth removed after her mother gave her nothing but cordial to drink and refused to take her to a dentist for three years.The Australian Dental Association says 5 per cent of Australian children have extensive early childhood tooth decay. |
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