HEALTH NOTES
TEETH AN INDICATOR OF NEGLECT
CHILDREN with severe dental decay should be referred to local safeguarding teams as it may be an indicator of wider neglect, dentistry experts have said.
Researchers at London’s King’s College Hospital said two out of five (40%) children who needed oral and maxillofacial surgery due to dental decay over a two-year period were already known to social services.
Their findings have led to the introduction of a new care pathway for children admitted to the hospital’s A&E unit with dental/oral and maxillofacial infections, which will see them risk assessed for neglect and referred to the safeguarding team accordingly.
The study authors said they also want to see their review, which is published in the British Dental Journal, rolled out across the NHS.
Dental neglect is defined as the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic oral health needs, which is likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s oral, general health or development.
Dentofacial/cervicofacial infection (infection affecting the face and neck) in children is avoidable, and if left untreated it can significantly disadvantage them for the rest of their lives, they warned.
‘TROJAN HORSE ANTIBIOTIC’
A NEW antibiotic which acts as a “Trojan horse” has proved effective against drug-resistant bacteria, researchers have said.
Scientists say trials on 448 people with kidney or urinary tract infections found the drug cefiderocol eradicated germs just as effectively as current treatments.
The drug tricks the bacteria’s biology by binding to iron to enter cells – working much like the Trojan horse that was used to sneak the ancient Greeks into the city of Troy.
Experts say the results of the research highlight the potential of cefiderocol as a new option for treating highly resistant bacteria.
The findings, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, come amid the growing threat of human resistance to antibiotics.