A welcomes decrease in hospital tooth extractions

The Faculty of Dental Surgery has welcomed the decrease but cautioned there is still a long way to go in improving children’s oral health in England.

Tooth extraction remains the number one procedure carried out on children aged five to nine in hospital, according to Faculty of Dental Surgery analysis of Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity for England in 2015/16. The majority of these were multiple tooth extractions. Dental caries is still the leading cause of hospital admissions for five to nine year olds with 25,875 admissions in 2015/16.

By comparison, the next most common reason for admission to hospital for five to nine year olds in 2015/16, was acute tonsillitis (11,922 admissions) and the next most common procedure carried out was tonsillectomy (12,275 procedures). 

The data also shows there were 9,220 tooth extractions performed on one to four year olds in hospitals in 2015/16 – down from 9,613 in 2014/15. Extraction of teeth in young children frequently involves a general anaesthetic.