Full story in The Independent, 16 June 2018
Dentistry experts have warned of a “troubling” increase in children being made to wait in pain for six months or more for surgery to treat serious dental problems, up 50 per cent in the past two years.
Figures obtained by Labour show the pressures on NHS waiting lists are being made even worse by an avoidable crisis of tooth decay from sugar consumption and a failure to promote good oral hygiene.
Children in poorer areas are much harder hit the British Dental Association (BDA) said, adding that the ballooning waiting lists are another example of the “government failure to tackle wholly preventable disease”.
[…] Patients at Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, the hospital with the longest waits in the country, children waited 253 days for treatment after a referral from their dentist.