Infant Oral Mutilation (IOM) is an alarming traditional practice executed upon young children suffering from diarrhoea and fever. Commonly performed in East African countries, it involves the barbaric removal of unerupted baby teeth owing to swelling gums being mistaken for ‘tooth worms’. This is a highly dangerous and sometimes fatal practice. Blood loss and shock borne from rudimentary surgery often leads to anaemia, while the poor infection control involved gives an extremely high risk of septicaemia, tetanus and transmission of blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS. IOM can sometimes be fatal; many governments and aid organisations are entirely unaware of its dangerous implications.

The Global Child Dental Fund and the Kenya and East African Paediatric Dental Association hereby call for the practice of infant oral mutilation to be eradicated in East Africa within 10 years.