Up to 10,000 children under the age of 15 are having their teeth removed in hospital under general anaesthetic every year, the Irish Dental Association (IDA) has said.

According to the IDA, the vast majority of these cases could have been avoided if detected earlier, however cutbacks to dental supports have made this impossible.

It said that these figures are up to five times higher than comparable figures in the UK, and thousands of children with chronic dental infection, many of whom need multiple extractions, are having to wait up to one year for treatment

"Why are thousands of our young people undergoing the trauma of hospitalisation for multiple dental extractions? Some 95% of these cases would have been avoidable if they had been detected and treated earlier. The reason they weren't is because of Government cuts to family dental supports since 2010, the constant undermining of what had been a highly effective schools screening service and the fact that too many of our young people have a poor diet containing too much sugar," commented IDA president, Anne Twomey.

The association believes these figures are a ‘indictment of the slash and burn oral health policy of the previous and current Government'.

When these cuts were first introduced back in 2010, the IDA insisted that they would have long-term consequences for the oral health of the country. It also emphasised that the small amount of money the cutbacks would save would be dwarfed by the huge amount that would eventually have to be spent dealing with the problems they caused.

Dr Twomey expressed serious concern about the fact that some children with serious infections were having to wait up to 12 months for treatment.

"The closure of the walk-in clinic in St James's Hospital in Dublin means waiting lists for general anaesthetic services in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare are 12 months. Waiting periods around the country are typically six to nine months. We know there are currently over 3,000 children awaiting general anaesthetic services and some of these have been waiting up to a year," she pointed out.

She noted that this issue is compounded by the fact that dental cases are not included on hospital priority lists. This means that theatre slots for dental cases are cancelled on a regular basis in favour of other paediatric cases.

"For example, if a child is waiting longer than six months to have an ear, nose or throat operation, the hospital is penalised, but this doesn't happen for dental patients. We are hearing stories of children having to be admitted for IV antibiotics for oral infection. Our concern is that general anaesthetic services for dentistry will not become a priority until a child has a serious outcome from dental infection," Ms Twomey said.

She called on the HSE to put dental cases on hospital priority lists and ensure that the appropriate number of staff to deal with these cases are in place.