Surgery wait painful for dental patients

Cody Mullis, a six-year-old boy with Down syndrome, has been living with an abscessed tooth for more than a year.

Whenever anyone puts something in his mouth — including a finger while someone is trying to take a look — he closes it, automatically. That meant even having his problem diagnosed wasn’t easy.

And in order to have the abscessed tooth removed, Cody needs to be under a general anesthetic during the surgery. His mother, Sabrina Mullis, said when she first contacted the dental surgeon she was referred to more than a year ago, she was told there’s a "substantial" wait for such surgery.

In the meantime, Cody has been on and off antibiotics and obviously in discomfort, despite his high threshold for pain, said Sabrina. Cody doesn’t speak, so it’s through other signs that she knows how he’s feeling.

"He recognizes the Motrin bottle now. That’s kind of scary as a parent," she said. "He sees the Motrin bottle and nods his head, yes."

Cody and his family aren’t alone in their wait. According to data available on the Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network website, extensive wait times for dental surgery are the norm in Saskatoon.

As of June 30 — the most recent data available — there were 1,929 patients waiting for dental surgery in the city. Four out of five

of those are children. Between Jan. 1 and June 30, there were 986 procedures completed. Of those, nearly 20 per cent had been waiting for more than one year.

The information provided by individual surgeons paints an even grimmer picture. The surgeon Cody is scheduled to see had 767 patients waiting as of June 30. During the year leading up to that, the surgeon completed 527 non-emergency cases. Half of those had been waiting for one year, while 10 per cent had been waiting for more than 21/2 years.

But Cody’s wait is almost over. A twist of fate will see him have his surgery on Friday.

Growing concerned about the long-term effects of regularly being on antibiotics — in addition to the ongoing pain Cody was in — Sabrina renewed her attempts during the summer to get him in to a surgeon.

She asked her family doctor to write a letter and phoned a number of dentists in the city, but many told her Cody’s case would be referred to dental surgeons at Royal University Hospital, where she thought he was already on the waiting list.

She phoned RUH two weeks ago to check on when the surgery might be, but was informed her son’s file had been lost and the waiting list was three years long.

That’s when she decided to contact The StarPhoenix. When a reporter contacted the Saskatoon Health Region to inquire about the case, no one was available to speak that week. But Sabrina got some good news.

"The next thing I know, later in that day, I got a phone call saying there was a mistake made, Cody shouldn’t be on that waiting list. They’ll fit him in," she said.

That’s a relief to Sabrina, who found the process frustrating and exhausting.

Dental surgeons are always concerned about access to care for pediatric cases, said Dr. Bernie White, the registrar of the College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan.

When asked what the biggest challenge to reducing wait times was, he said it was the "bottleneck" in operating rooms.

"I guess it would be access to operating rooms where you have general anesthetic available," White said.

The StarPhoenix repeatedly contacted the health region for comment, but due to restrictions on government communication during a byelection call — which happened Sept. 20 — no one was made available. However, after clarifying the interpretation of the law, an official spoke with The StarPhoenix on Wednesday.

Jenny Bartsch, director of surgery services for the Saskatoon Health Region, couldn’t speak about the specifics of Mullis’s case, but she said pediatric dental surgery has been identified as a priority.

"The issue is not unique to Saskatchewan. This is a trend across the country, of increasing demand, increasing need," she said.

Compared to one year ago, an average of 16 additional hours per week of operating room time in the health region has been designated for those procedures and wait times have been slowly but steadily decreasing, said Bartsch.