A HAWORTH dentist is warning that children with rotting teeth are future diabetics who will clog up hospital beds and other health services in the years to come.

Dr Tony Kilcoyne was speaking out after latest NHS figures revealed the number of tooth extractions in hospital for children aged four and under in Bradford district is rising.

Data on the Public Health England website shows 168 children under four in Bradford district had teeth taken out in hospital during 2015/16, slightly more than in 2014/15 when 156 procedures were carried out on that age group.

Dr Kilcoyne said rotting teeth in children so young is an “unnecessary tragedy” and could be prevented by tackling general ignorance about oral health.

England-wide, the 2015/16 number was 9,306. The number of under-fours having those procedures nationally has gone up by almost a quarter in the last decade, rising from 7,444 in 2006/7.

In Bradford there were also 215 hospital dental extractions among five to nine-year-olds in 2015/16, 111 among the ten to 14-year-old group and 107 among 15 to 19-year-olds in that same period.

Dr Kilcoyne said: “These children are the future diabetics who will be clogging up hospital beds, taking up NHS appointments and resources with other problems caused by too much sugar, hammering their ability to keep making insulin.

“It’s an unnecessary tragedy because it is totally preventable.”

Dr Kilcoyne is calling on NHS policymakers to listen to dentists calling for a three-pronged attack on bad oral health among children.

They want to see a five-year plan to reduce by a third the number of hospital extractions among the young which would include a countrywide national media campaign to education people on better care, getting the food industry to cut the amount of hidden sugars used in products and a new NHS contract rewarding decay prevention work.

Deputy leader of Bradford Council and portfolio holder for health and wellbeing, Cllr Val Slater said: “No child should have to have a tooth extracted because it’s decayed as it is an entirely preventable condition. I can’t believe any parent wants to put their child through the pain and discomfort associated with toothache, let alone having one removed in hospital.”