Parents giving children painkillers rather than taking them to a dentist

PARENTS are routinely failing to take their children to the dentist if they have tooth trouble, a major survey suggests.

Just one in three who sought help at casualty or from a pharmacy had been to the dentist beforehand.

Academics said their study showed dental services were worryingly under-used. Some children were making multiple trips to GPs, nurses and hospital A&E instead.

The researchers from Queen Mary University of London estimate that this wastes £2.3million of NHS cash a year.

They examined the records of almost 7,000 parents who visited community pharmacies in London to pick up pain medication for a child.

In two thirds of cases the treatment was for oral pain. Yet only 30 per cent of the children had been to their dentist first.

Vanessa Muirhead, who led the research, said: ‘Children with oral pain need to see a dentist for a definitive diagnosis and to treat any tooth decay. Not treating a decayed tooth can result in more pain, abscesses and possible damage to children’s permanent teeth.

‘These children had not only failed to see a dentist before their pharmacy visit, they had seen GPs and a range of other health professionals outside dentistry.’

Dr Muirhead added: ‘This inappropriate and overuse of multiple health services including A&E is costing the NHS a substantial amount of money at a time when reducing waste is a government priority.

‘The fact that only 30 per cent of children with oral pain had seen a dentist before going to a pharmacy highlights a concerning under-use of dental services.’

Thirty-one of the parents in the study said they had taken their child to casualty with teeth trouble before going to

‘It’s wholly preventable’

the pharmacy. Another 57 had been to an NHS walk-in or urgent care centre, according to the study published in the journal BMJ Open.

Official figures show that a quarter of five-year- olds in England have decay in their baby teeth while approximately a fifth of 12-year- olds have decay in their adult teeth.

And the main reason for planned hospital admissions for children aged five to nine is to have decayed teeth extracted under general anaesthestic.

The British Dental Association said the figures were scandalous. ‘The failure to take oral health seriously is now piling pressure across our NHS,’ said spokesman Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen.

‘Parents and dentists are seeing no leadership here, and pharmacists and medics are struggling to fill the gap.

‘Sadly these latest figures are just the tip of the iceberg. Tooth decay, a wholly preventable condition, remains the number one reason for child hospital admissions.

‘It’s a scandal that Government indifference is coming with a multi-million pound price tag.’

Only 58 per cent of children in England had visited a dentist in 2016 – despite dental care being free for under-18s.