Andrew Dickens Afternoons

A 4-year-old girl who had all of her rotting baby teeth removed is one tens of thousands of Kiwi kids with poor dental health, a new report has found.Dental caries, or tooth decay, was found to be most common chronic disease in children, and one of the leading causes of hospital admissions.In the 2015/2016 year, 29,000 children under the age of 12 had to have one or more teeth removed as a result of severe cavities and infection, and 6600 of those ended up in hospital. Each operation to remove teeth cost about $4000."The cost of this in public healthcare and to taxpayers is huge," oral health researcher and co-author Prathibha Sural said.The report, Too soon for the tooth fairy: the implications of child poverty for oral health, summarises knowledge about the prevalence of poor oral health among children in New Zealand.Most of the cases were argued to be preventable and strongly associated with poverty.Co-author and public health specialist Dr Rob Beaglehole said tooth decay was a "disease of poverty"."Poorer