A young mother has hit out at a dentist claiming she and her then-four-year-old daughter were unfairly treated when she couldn?t pay up front for emergency dental work her daughter needed after she fell three feet over the side of a porch.

The impact from the fall pushed one of the young girl?s teeth up into her mouth and she also received road rash along the entire length of the right side of her face.

The accident happened almost a year ago, however Charlita Campbell said she was making her concerns public because she wanted to ensure that other parents did not experience the same trauma her family went through while trying to get the best possible emergency medical treatment for their children.

Thirty-one-year-old Ms Campbell said her daughter was taken to the King Edward VII Hospital by ambulance, and after assessing her injuries, the emergency doctor called the on-call dentist Dr. Richard Cann to consult on the case.

Instead of treating her daughter in the hospital, Ms. Campbell claimed Dr. Cann asked her to meet him at his office.

Ms Campbell said: ?When I arrived at his office I asked him why he couldn?t treat my daughter in the hospital. I never received a satisfactory answer.

?I had just started a new job and didn?t have dental insurance. Had he treated her in the hospital, the procedure would have been covered as emergency treatment.?

Ms Campbell claimed Dr. Cann initially refused to treat her daughter when he learned she didn?t have dental insurance and could not afford to pay up front for the dental work.

She added: ?I had to practically beg him to do the procedure on my daughter. After about 20 minutes he agreed, but only after telling me that I had better pay the bill by the following week.?

Ms. Campbell said she was not going to pay the $278 dental bill, but decided to pay the entire bill in full yesterday.

When contacted by this newspaper Dr. Cann said Ms Campbell had not expressed any of her concerns directly to him and he encouraged her to put her complaints in writing to his office.

He refused to speak to about any of the specific concerns raised.