Faculty calls for action over child dental health
- Details
- Published: Tuesday, 14 July 2015 07:55
- Written by News Editor
- Hits: 3875
The Faculty of Dental Surgery has launched its action paper calling for a clear government public health strategy to tackle poor rates of oral health across the country. Professor Nigel Hunt, Dean, Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons said: “It is unacceptable that one-third of five year olds suffer from tooth decay in England.”
The Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons says the government needs to take action to tackle the rising numbers of children being admitted to hospital for tooth extractions. Despite being nearly entirely preventable, tooth decay is the most common cause of hospital admissions amongst five-nine year old children with 26,500 children admitted to hospital between 2014-2015 with the figure rising by almost 1,000 children between 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.
This is causing distress to children and parents, and an unnecessary strain on NHS services. In the report: ‘Actions for the government to improve oral health’ the Faculty calls on the government to develop a clear public health strategy where oral health is part of the debate on how to tackle chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity.
Professor Hunt said: “It is unacceptable that one-third of five year olds suffer from tooth decay in England. With the number of children being admitted to hospital for tooth extractions rising, we cannot afford to wait. We need to prevent children from reaching the stage where they need to undergo general anaesthetic in a hospital setting in the first place. By encouraging good oral health practice amongst children now we will decrease the likelihood of further problems into their adulthood”.
He added: “We want to see a clear government strategy that raises awareness of the importance of simple measures such as reducing sugar consumption or visiting a dentist and drives up standards in oral health nationally.”
The Faculty’s paper outlined a six point plan to tackle the problem:
- Prevention should be at the forefront of policies to improve oral health
- Fair access to high quality NHS dental care should be available to everyone across the country
- At minimum, an oral health programme to drive improvements in children’s oral health in England should be introduced in areas of social deprivation where it is found there is poor oral health
- Other healthcare professionals should be further encouraged to provide preventive advice to patients
- A public health campaign that raises awareness of the impact of sugar on oral health is required
- Extending the HPV vaccine to boys is needed to help reduce the increasing rates of oral cancer
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report