Derry dentist says tooth decay a ‘disease of deprivation’ with 21,000 kids’ teeth pulled in one year

Derry Journal

A former Derry dentist has described decay as a ‘disease of deprivation’ highlighting disproportionately higher levels of illness and tooth extraction in the North compared with Britain.

Transcript

00:00 We know that dental decay is, like any non-communicable disease, is impacted within

00:06 areas of deprivation. So there are surveys that are done on a regular basis throughout the United

00:12 Kingdom and they're done generally on five-year-old, 12-year-old and adults and they happen at various

00:19 intervals. And without going into the details of a lot of figures, but we consistently come out as

00:26 the highest decay, the region suffering not only the number of the population who are experiencing

00:36 decay, but within the population that is experiencing decay it is worse. So there's more

00:42 teeth decayed, missing or filled within the group which have increased decay. I just want to reiterate

00:50 that figure. 21,000 teeth and that's the end of the spectrum, that's general anaesthetic extraction,

00:56 that's not talking about the extractions carried out in dental surgeries under local anaesthetic

01:01 or under sedation, carried out by the community service under sedation. So that is the end of

01:07 the spectrum and you know the population of children in Northern Ireland, 21,000 teeth

01:12 extracted under general anaesthetic. So that is not a statistic that we're particularly proud of

01:20 and I worked in Derry. When you put it in context of the position we are with the oral health of our

01:29 population at the present time and the work that we all need to do as a society to improve that,

01:37 it's not necessarily the fault of the people themselves, it's how the system that we put for

01:44 them. It's getting them access to care, it's getting them access to healthy choices. You know

01:50 these people are in economic strife at the moment as you and I well know. They are making difficult

01:57 choices and it's really important not to blame society, it's what we provide and the process

02:07 and the systems we provide to have the care so that children do miss out less school because

02:13 they've got sore teeth, because people can't go to work, because they're not taking their child for

02:17 a general anaesthetic to have a tooth out. So that the non-verbal child and there's great work goes

02:22 on in the community service, I commend that to helping and again we're straying and maybe beyond

02:27 this but it's important the context, the great work that the community service to provide care

02:32 but if patients are being displaced into the community service because of this issue,

02:38 this particular issue with amalgam, that's only going to impact secondarily on those

02:43 patients that are receiving that really good care in the community service.

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