The British Dental Association (BDA) has warned oral health inequality among the young is set to widen, as new research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats indicates 6.5 million children in England have not been seen by an NHS dentist for at least a year.
The BDA warn the lack of access will disproportionately impact lower-income, higher-needs families. Data obtained by the professional body under Freedom of Information indicates over 15 million appointments for children have been lost since lockdown, well over a year’s worth of dentistry in normal times.
In March 2023, the first oral health survey of five-year-olds published since lockdown showed once again no improvements in decay levels and a widening gap between rich and poor. The data revealed, 23.7 per cent of five-year-old children in England had experience of obvious dentinal decay. This was a marginal increase on the previous survey of five-year-olds in 2019, where figures stood at 23.4 per cent.
The report concluded that while absolute inequalities in tooth decay prevalence in five-year-olds reduced from 2008 to 2015, there have been no further reductions in inequalities since then.
In the 2019 survey, the prevalence of dental decay was higher in children from more deprived areas (34.3 per cent) than in children from less deprived areas (13.7 per cent) – an oral health gap of 20.6 percentage points. In the 2022 data, that gap has widened. In 2022 the prevalence of dental decay in more deprived areas was 35.1 per cent compared to 13.5 per cent in the more affluent – an oral health gap of over 21.6 percentage points.
Eddie Crouch, BDA chair, said, “Access to dentistry has fallen off a cliff. We’re losing the ability to nip problems in the bud, and the results are frankly devastating.
“A preventable disease remains the number one reason for hospital admissions among young children, and things are set to go from bad to worse.
“Kids in our most deprived communities will be hit the hardest while government sits on the sidelines.”