600 kids on Ottawa dental surgery wait list

Desmond Kenny, 3, has a dinosaur toothbrush and at least eight cavities.

Ottawa Public Health said Kenny is among 600 children on a waiting list to have dental surgery at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, many of whom are from low-income familieson social assistance. Desmond has been on the list since April.

Michael Bilodeau, CHEO's president and CEO, said his hospital does the most dental surgeries in Ontario, and can't keep up with the referrals from pediatric dentists who want young children to have their fillings done under general anesthesia.

"We get more referrals than what we can handle in large part because the remuneration the dentists get for poor children and children on social assistance is very low compared to what they get from private insurance or from parents who can afford to pay," Bilodeau said.

While Toronto has several hospitals capable of performing the surgical work, CHEO is the only Eastern Ontario hospital with dental surgeons on staff.

The hospital prioritizes treatment of children with mental disabilities or physical conditions that require them to be unconscious during their surgery.

That leaves children likeDesmond with lengthy waits, despite serious dental problems that worsen during the delay in treatment.

Pediatric dentist Ian McConnachie said he and colleagues do take on patients on social assistance, even though the provincepays only 58 per cent of the actual cost of the surgery, leaving him with a loss.

McConnachie, who has served on a CHEO committee that aimed to find solutions to the waiting list problem, said the provincial government needs to do a better job educating children and parents about how to care for teeth, and what can damage them.

"The problem can develop as young as under a year of age." McConnachie said.

"I have taken kids into the operating room at one year to two years of age where we've had to take out teeth We see at the children's hospital about 15 cases a year where a [dental] infection becomes life-threatening."

At CHEO, children over the age of five are no longer candidates for dental surgery under general anesthesia unless their condition risks their life.

For Desmond Kenny's mother Christine, the ordeal began when she noticed a small spot on one of his teeth. A dentist blamed the decay that formed in the gaps between his teeth on soft enamel the tooth's coating and Desmond's favourite snacks, dried fruit and raisins.

"I worry that when they do these fillings, whenever they get around to doing it, that the decay has gone far enough to reach the nerve," Christine Kenny said.

"I don't like the thought of him being in pain on a daily basis."

After almost year of regular fluoride rinses at the dentist's office to halt any further decay, Kenny is scheduled for surgery in January.