Joined–up thinking essential to improve dental health of children - BSPD
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- Published: Tuesday, 14 July 2015 07:55
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A national policy to include dental surgeons in all health and educational database systems as well as GPs has been called for by Dr Robin Mills, Vice President of the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD), speaking at the Westminster Forum. Joined‑up thinking is essential, he said, to reduce the number of young children going into hospital in England and Wales for dental extractions under general anaesthetic.
In a talk entitled “Current issues in paediatric dentistry” he highlighted the numbers of general anaesthetics being carried out on children annually: 46,500 in England, 11,455 in Wales and 8904 in Scotland (in the last year for which there are figures). “As a nation, we should be ashamed of ourselves,” he said.
He outlined the key milestones in 2015 which had raised awareness of the extent of the problem caused by childhood caries:
- In January a report (1) identified that decay is the number one reason that children aged 5-9 are admitted to hospital
- In February, evidence submitted by BSPD to the Commons Health Select Committee into children’s oral health highlighted the shortage of specialist paediatric dentists in many areas of the UK
- In March, publication of the Child Dental Health Survey (2) showed that in England, Scotland and Wales nearly half of 15-year-olds and a third of 12-year-olds had obvious decay.
Dr Mills welcomed the decision taken by the General Dental Council to introduce safeguarding as a recommended topic for registrants’ Continuing Professional Development. This is an area in which BSPD has taken a lead. However, he said much more could be done to improve the dental health and well-being of children if there was the political will and joined-up thinking among policy-makers. He pointed out that some MPs had shown their lack of commitment by turning up in such low numbers to the House of Commons Select Health Committee into children’s dental health– there were just 3 MPs there, compared to 9 MPs at a committee on finance and 6 MPs on a committee enquiry into children’s mental health services, all in the same period.
An electronic database exists – the NHS Spine - which enables an electronic email discharge from hospital to their doctor – but dentists are excluded from this and when a hospital is discharging a child, the hospital dental surgeon must write a letter to the referring GDP because the child’s dentists are not on the NHS Spine(3). The Schools Information Management system (SIMS) is another database which excludes dentists. He said: “A mandatory entry of a child’s dentist would help safeguard children. Opportunities to help keep track of a child and provide parts of the missing jigsaw about their health and wellbeing are being missed.” Dr Mills produced a map which identified the shortages of specialist paediatric dentists in some areas. “Treatment planning by paediatric dentists for children undergoing general anaesthesia results in fewer repeated anaesthetics. More specialists are required to achieve this in all areas
Dr Mills also commended the Childsmile programme in Scotland which is already reducing dental decay in children and has actually saved NHS money. More preventive programmes like Childsmile are needed, he said.
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