Opinion: Why New Brunswick children are being left behind in dental care

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Children in New Brunswick are waiting years for dental surgeries that are routine in other parts of Canada. Some spend more than two years in pain before they can be treated in a hospital operating room.

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As New Brunswick’s only board-certified pediatric dentist, I see the toll this takes every day. When I tell parents their child may have to wait years in pain for treatment, I see despair and frustration on their faces. Without sufficient operating room access, there’s little I can do except urge families to contact their MLA and advocate for change.

New Brunswick is failing these children. Unlike Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, our province does not recognize pediatric dentistry as a distinct specialty within the health-care system, leaving hospital operating room time minimal and inconsistent, with undeniable consequences for the children who need treatment – and for their families.

This failure has serious consequences. Dental decay – known as severe early childhood caries – is the most common chronic disease in childhood. Left untreated, it causes pain, infection, sleepless nights, and difficulty eating. Over time, it can lead to failure to thrive, missed school, damage to adult teeth, orthodontic complications, and in rare cases, life-threatening infections.

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Desperate for relief, parents often bring their children to the emergency room. But emergency physicians can do little to treat the underlying disease. The result is ineffective care and a poor use of emergency department resources and taxpayer dollars.

For many children, especially those who are very young or have complex medical needs, dental surgery under general anesthesia is the only safe option. Yet operating room time for pediatric dental cases in New Brunswick is scarce.

In other provinces, it’s a different story. In Newfoundland and Labrador, four pediatric dentists each receive six to eight operating room days a month. At Halifax’s IWK Health Centre, pediatric dental surgeries account for more than 30 per cent of operating room resources, with two rooms dedicated up to five days a week.

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Here in New Brunswick, I’m typically allocated only three or four operating room days a month, and in some months, none at all. The days I receive are usually days that other surgeons have cancelled, often on short notice, all over the province of New Brunswick. Some of these days are around major holidays which can be challenging for families to manage. For instance, I operated on December 24, 2024, during a snowstorm in Fredericton.

More than 300 children are on my surgical waitlist. Families call my office daily, describing children who can’t sleep, can’t eat and miss school because of dental pain. They beg for pain medication or antibiotics to provide even temporary relief. Some travel long distances within or outside the province to access care – costs many low-income and newcomer families simply can’t afford.

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This is inequity in action. Families with means can sometimes find alternatives. Those without are left behind.

Yet the solution is within reach. The Government of New Brunswick should formally recognize pediatric dentistry as a specialty within the provincial health system and dedicate consistent hospital operating room time for pediatric dental surgeries performed by board-certified specialists – at least six to eight days a month in Moncton and southeast New Brunswick, where wait times are longest.

If hospital capacity cannot be expanded, the province could adopt an alternate model. Cataract surgeries, for instance, are now performed outside of hospitals with government support. Pediatric dental surgeries, which typically require fewer resources and do not involve overnight stays, could follow the same approach as they do in other provinces

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The issue isn’t the need is lower or the cases less complex. The crisis exists because the health-care system has not prioritized pediatric dentistry. Despite being one of 10 nationally recognized dental specialties, pediatric dentistry is treated the same as general dentistry in surgical planning. This ignores the reality general dentists across the province refer complex cases to me precisely because they cannot manage them in their offices or in the operating room.

New Brunswick’s children deserve better. They deserve to live without preventable pain, to focus on school and to receive the same timely care as children in other provinces. The government has both an opportunity and a responsibility to act.

This isn’t just about dental policy. It’s about health, fairness and compassion. We can fix it – all it takes is the will to put children first.

Dr. Tom Raddall is New Brunswick’s only board-certified specialist in pediatric dentistry. He practises in Moncton, N.B.

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