Dentists call on next mayor to tackle Manchester’s £13m child tooth decay bill

Official statistics show a child in Greater Manchester is 60 per cent more likely to end up having to be admitted to hospital to have multiple decayed teeth extracted under general anaesthesia than an average child in England. Over the past four years, the area saw more than 15,000 of these painful and completely preventable procedures, costing the local NHS over £13m. Of the ten local authorities with the poorest children’s oral health outcomes in England, three are in Greater Manchester. Today, five-year-olds in areas like Salford and Oldham are more than six times more likely to have decay than their peers in in Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s Surrey constituency.

The BDA has been in contact with all campaigns and is encouraging candidates to embrace tried and tested reforms, including adapting the pioneering Childsmileprogramme that is having a transformative effect on children’s oral health in Scotland, reducing availability of sugary foods in schools and expanding successful local initiatives within the city region.

Dentist leaders are now urging all mayoral candidates to support their five-point plan for better oral health across Greater Manchester: