Hundreds Of Children May Have Been Exposed To Infectious Bacteria At OC Dentist's Office
ANAHEIM (CBSLA.com) — KCAL9 on Tuesday broke the news about at least seven children coming down with a strange bacterial infection after visiting a dentist's office in Orange County.
On Wednesday, parents of several more children came forward to say their children were also sick.
Doctors believe as many as 500 children may have been exposed to the infectious bacteria.
The children all underwent a procedure similar to a root canal at Children's Dental Group in Anaheim between May and September, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Last week, Children's Dental stopped doing the procedure in question, reported CBS2's Michele Gile.
Seven kids who were patients at Children's Dental Group have been treated at Children's Hospital of Orange County. Symptoms include abscesses in their mouths and necks. Some of the abscesses have required surgery.
RELATED LINK: Mysterious Outbreak Sickens Young Dental Patients In Orange County
On Wednesday, Gile spoke to more angry parents who wanted to know how their children got infected.
One girl's frightened parents took their young daughter to the emergency room at Kaiser Permanente in Anaheim.
"I want their license revoked," says Cecilia Roman, a mom, "I want that place to be shut down. I want someone to investigate. I can't believe there are people out there that would hurt kids. And just to run up a bill. At the end of the day, she had three teeth taken out of her mouth. Her face was swollen up. I felt like I let my daughter down."
Doctors at Kaiser are monitoring Roman's daughter, Hailey, for possible infection. She visited the dental clinic in June.
Roman said her daughter went in to have her teeth cleaned and that they pulled three teeth without her authorization.
Orange County Health and the California Dental Board are both investigating -- they will look at the cleanliness of equipment and the water source used at the facility to try to determine what went wrong.
On Tuesday, Gile spoke to the CEO of the Children's Dental Group who she quoted as saying, "We are on it."
