A New Brunswick child’s two-year wait for dental surgery highlights a backlog the province’s only board-certified pediatric dental specialist says is worsening.
A 10-year-old New Brunswick girl has been waiting nearly two years for dental surgery that began as a need for two fillings and has since grown into a more serious case involving at least seven fillings and possible extractions.
Frankie Henderson, who lives in Rusagonis near Fredericton, has autism and an anxiety disorder, making treatment in a general dentist’s office difficult, her mother, Erica Henderson, told CBC News. One cavity has now reached nerve tissue, and Frankie has been referred to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, where the wait is shorter.
“It’s getting worse now, like her front teeth are affected,” Henderson said. “What if we have to wait for another year or more?”
Dr. Tom Raddall, a Moncton-based pediatric dental specialist described as New Brunswick’s only board-certified pediatric dentist, said Frankie’s case is part of a wider backlog. He said more than 300 of his patients across the province are waiting for dental surgery, with many facing one- to two-year waits and some waiting close to three years.
The children referred to Raddall often have complex medical needs, are very young or are considered high-risk, meaning their dental work may need to be done in a hospital with general anesthetic or intubation. He said untreated dental problems can leave some children in daily pain, struggling to eat, sleep or concentrate at school, and can lead to repeated infections and antibiotic use.
Raddall attributes the backlog largely to limited operating-room access. He said he receives between zero and five operating-room days a month but would need at least two days a week to keep up with demand. He also said New Brunswick does not recognize pediatric dentistry as a specialty, a point echoed by Paul Blanchard, executive director of the New Brunswick Dental Society.
Provincial surgical wait-time data cited in the report show that at the Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton, half of pediatric dental surgeries for fillings and extractions were completed within 300 days. Comparable median completion points were 267 days at the Edmundston Regional Hospital and 243 days at the Saint John Regional Hospital.
Blanchard said the province should also strengthen prevention, including measures such as water fluoridation, better oral-health data, a chief dental officer in the Health Department and school fluoride varnish programs.
The New Brunswick Health Department said operating-room time is managed by hospitals based on patient condition and surgeon waitlists, and that it is working with regional health authorities to reduce surgical waits by making better use of existing operating rooms. Horizon Health Network said about 800 pediatric dental surgeries were performed in 2024-25 across several sites by credentialled dental professionals, including general dentists. Vitalité Health Network did not respond to CBC’s interview requests.
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