A 7-year-old girl had oral surgery to remove an infected jaw bone and three teeth after having a pulpotomy at a Southern California dental clinic, according to an Orange County Register story.
Twenty children, ages 3 to 9, have been hospitalized after developing slowly progressive oral cellulitis, often with dental abscess and/or cervical lymphadenitis, after having pulpotomies at the Children's Dental Group in Anaheim, CA, between April 6, 2016, and July 28, 2016, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Three children tested positive for Mycobacterium abscessus, a nontuberculous mycobacterium that causes slowly progressing infection of soft tissue or bone. Dental infections from M. abscessus can cause symptoms over a period of weeks to months after pulpotomy procedures, the agency said. Swelling, redness, and pain around the infected tooth can occur. Treatment includes long-term antibiotic therapy, the agency said.
The clinic stopped performing the procedures on September 6. Health officials are contacting the parents of 500 other children who also had the procedure, according to an article on the Orange County Register.
The health care agency has also ordered the clinic to stop using its present onsite water system and to install an entirely new water system.
The clinic, which has several locations in Southern California, is working with the agency to identify the source of the infection.
