Poverty is directly responsible for a growing number of people losing their teeth to decay.  Adults unable to afford dental treatment are resorting to using pliers to extract their own teeth. Meanwhile, children as young as one are also losing their teeth. The numbers losing their teeth is phenomenal. During the 2015 and 2016 period alone over 29,000 children had teeth removed and over 6,600 children were hospitalised because of rotting teeth.