A report for Manchester City Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee has revealed that the oral health of children is swiftly deteriorating.
The national percentage for five-year-old children with obvious caries is 23.4 per cent. In Manchester, it has reached 38.3 per cent.
Local media outlet Manchester Evening News collated data from several parts of the region. It discovered that Oldham, Rochdale and Salford had caries rates of 43.7 per cent, 40.7 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively.
In March 2020, Greater Manchester dental practices received instruction to suspend non-urgent care to limit Covid-19 transmission. Practices were able to reopen in June 2020, but they were only able to see six to eight patients a day due to enhanced infection prevention and control. The legacy of the pandemic has placed significant pressure on dental practices, the report states, “Services are now working hard on recovery to pre-pandemic levels and in particular to reduce backlogs and waiting lists for treatment.”
Manchester Evening News claims that a report on “the dental health of children following the pandemic years” will be published in the coming weeks.
Sarah Russel, a councillor, said, “The national picture is that the leading cause of non-emergency admission of children to hospital is dental issues, elsewhere in this report it says [38.3 per cent] aged five in Manchester already need fillings, it’s clearly a widespread problem.”
Eddy Newman, a city council member, added, “The pandemic was a unique challenge for dentists. But it is very difficult indeed to get registered with an NHS dentist, particularly if you’re an adult but for children as well.
“The difficulty of if you’re not registered with an NHS dentist and being told when you go on the website that the nearest NHS dentist is in Huddersfield, ridiculous situations like that, there is a challenge for the whole NHS [and] how it organises dentistry.”
Daalat Ali, Rochdale Borough Council’s cabinet member for health, said, “We are well aware of the need to improve the dental health of our children and have, for a number of years, been working hard to address the issue.”
Rochdale has attempted to improve oral health through a range of initiatives, including a dental packs programme for health visitors, a tooth-brushing schools programme, dental packs for children, one-to-one oral health advice and support for those requiring additional support and a pilot scheme for children who have not visited a dentist in a year which included fluoride varnish.
Barbara Brownridge, cabinet member for health and social care at Oldham Council, said, “We know that there’s a clear link between poverty and poor dental health. This is an issue we see reflected nationally, where there’s a strong correlation between the two issues. This can partially explain why we’re seeing these rates of tooth decay in Oldham, despite increased provision of oral health promotion services.
“Dental health is a big challenge but the energy, commitment and focus across Oldham show that we’re making progress and bringing real improvements to the area’s dental health needs for children.
“We have focused on oral health in early years, including training for health visitors and staff. Free toothbrushes and fluoride toothpaste have been provided to parents at their health visitor appointments, children centres and holiday activities and food programme.
“Alongside supervised toothbrushes scheme have been introduced in nurseries and we have run campaigns promoting oral health such as smile month and big brush month.
“We are committed to improving children’s dental hygiene across the borough. If anyone needs advice on oral hygiene for their child, they should talk to their health visitor or visit their local Children's Centre.”