Dentists: Tooth decay stats should offer wake up call on prevention
The British Dental Association (BDA) has called on government to put prevention at the heart of its approach to the crisis on child tooth decay, as new figures showed over 14,000 children aged five and under had been admitted to hospital for tooth extraction in 2014/15.
Analysis of data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has also revealed a 10 per cent increase in children requiring tooth extractions in the last four years.
News comes as the Government has supposedly abandoned plans for a sugar tax as part of its long delayed obesity strategy. The BDA has led calls for action to improve children’s oral health, and championed action on sugar.
Mick Armstrong, chair of the British Dental Association, said:
"These new figures should offer a wake up call to government on its failure to get to grips with prevention.
“Under fives are ending up in hospital for tooth extractions because successive governments have treated oral health as an afterthought. An entirely preventable disease has been left to emerge as the leading cause of hospital admissions among children. That means paying a premium for general anaesthesia, when we should be saving pain and money by aiming to keep healthy teeth in healthy mouths.
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