TOOTH decay has become by far the biggest reason why primary school children are admitted to hospital, new research has found. Almost 26,000 children in England aged between 5 and 9 have been hospitalised to have multiple tooth extractions in 2013-14 — the equivalent of nearly 500 a week. Dental leaders described the figures as shocking and said they were proof of the damage being done to children’s teeth by the overconsumption of sugary drinks and fruit juice. Kathryn Harley, a consultant in paediatric dentistry, said: “We have children who require all 20 of their baby teeth to be extracted. It beggars belief that their diets could produce such a drastic effect.” Graham Barnby, honorary vice-president of the British Dental Health Foundation, said: “It all relates to the consumption of sugary, fizzy drinks.” According to the Health and Social Care Information Centre, which analyses data for NHS England, the number of admissions for dental problems among 5 to 9-year-olds rose from 22,574 in 2010-11 to 25,812 in 2013-14. Harley said: “They are going into hospital because they are either presenting with acute problems with pain or because the stage of dental disease, the number of teeth with decay, is such that they need a general anaesthetic.” She said most children will require “maybe four or eight teeth to be extracted, quite a few will require 10, 12 or 14”. In her view the consumption of fruit juice is so damaging to children’s teeth that it should be banned at school.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 08:38:19 +0000
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