Dentists are fed up with doing tooth extractions on toddlers, and sugar is to blame

Australian dentists are becoming increasingly frustrated with having to extract multiple teeth from children as young as two years old, and the consensus is that sugar is to blame. Oral health in Australia 1 in 3 children aged 5-6 years have decay in their deciduous teeth 4 in 10 children aged 12-14 years have decay in their permanent teeth The cost of treating dental decay is estimated at $5 billion per year Statistics are even higher in Indigenous, migrant and rural children Source: National Child Oral Health Study At the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne, Sophie Beaumont is preparing for an afternoon of dental surgery. "It's not uncommon to be taking up to 12 or 14 teeth out from very little children, even from the ages of three and four," Dr Beaumont says. "A lot of children as young as one-and-a-half or two years old are getting dental decay, whether it's from bottle feeding at night time or from juices on a regular basis," Ms Le says. Dr Martin says the clinic has also adopted a preventative clinical approach as well, with oral health therapists identifying and treating the dental lesions that often prefigure decay in order to avoid extractions later.