DT News - UK - British Dental Association criticises asylum X-ray trial

Yvonne Bachmann, DTI

Thu. 10 May 2012

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LONDON, UK: The British Dental Association (BDA) has expressed concerns regarding a three-month trial on the use of dental X-rays to assess the age of young people who apply for asylum in the UK. The method introduced by the UK Border Agency has been received with scepticism and been severely criticised by members of the medical profession, immigration lawyers and the children’s commissioners for the UK.

The idea of using dental X-rays to determine the age of children and young people more accurately is not new. Already in 2008, a proposal suggesting this method was dropped by the Labour parliament following criticism by medical and dental experts.

At the time, Sir Liam Donaldson, then Chief Medical Officer for England at the Department of Health, raised his concerns about the proposal in a letter addressed to Philip Woolas, then Minister of State for Borders and Immigration, stating that “Dental X-rays can give a measure of age but a simple extrapolation to chronological age can be misleading and the scientific evidence on estimating age in this way is weak and limited”. Donaldson said that “The teeth of different ethnic groups mature at different rates” and that “The use of medical intervention with potential harm—in this case ionising radiation—without the intention of clinical benefits is not ethical”.

According to a report by The Guardian, the agency has already begun trials with volunteer applicants to investigate whether using dental X-rays would be useful in establishing the ages of asylum seekers, who are treated differently if they are under 18.

Among the critics of the trial are the four UK children’s commissioners, Dr Maggie Atkinson (England), Patricia Lewsley-Mooney (Northern Ireland), Tam Baillie (Scotland) and Keith Towler (Wales), who recently expressed their concerns in a joint statement: “We believe that this practice places the child at risk because they may be unable to give informed consent and will be at increased, unnecessary exposure to medical radiation. We believe that this is a clear breach of the rights of vulnerable children and young people and may, in fact, be illegal.”

In a letter, the BDA, among others, made representations to the UK Border Agency about the trial. Judith Husband, Vice-Chair of the BDA Executive Board, expressed dismay that the trials were taking place, given that a similar proposal was abandoned in 2008. Describing the trials as “unproven and potentially harmful”, she asked the agency to reconsider the use of radiography to determine age, and asked for the BDA to be involved in future meetings on the issue.

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