Serious tooth decay in children as young as two is being either ignored or badly treated as a result of a system of "poor care" and "supervised neglect", a leading dental expert has warned.
Young children are suffering pain, facial infections and blood poisoning because their baby teeth are being left untreated, with some undergoing the trauma of having teeth extracted because many dentists wrongly think primary or "milk" teeth are not worth repairing, said Monty Duggal, a professor of children's dentistry.
The mistaken belief that baby teeth should not be filled is leading to NHS dental hospitals having to perform emergency removals of children's teeth – which can sometimes involve extracting every tooth in what is called a "full clearance" – he adds.
Writing in the Faculty Dental Journal, Duggal criticises dentists and parents who believe that problematic milk teeth can be left to drop out naturally.
He condemns non-intervention in such children as "wrong and unjustifiable", and asks: "How can we condone the non-treatment of a disease that carries such a high morbidity and knowingly put the child at risk of pain and suffering?"
