The publication of the National Oral Health Plan for Wales 2013 - 2018 indicates some progress has been made in child dental health, particularly among 12 year-olds, but overall, tooth decay among children living in deprived communities remains the highest in the UK.
In 2011, the BDA called for four priorities to improve the oral health of Wales: eradicating oral health inequalities; developing a new dental contract for Wales; supporting health boards; and planning for the future.
It also called for the expansion of the Designed to Smile programme of oral health promotion for children, launched in 2008, which has proved instrumental in improving child dental health in Wales.
The BDA, therefore, welcomes the directive within the National Oral Health Plan that health boards must ensure the continued development of community-based programmes like Designed to Smile, to reduce the number of children undergoing general anaesthetic for tooth extractions.
However, given the inertia on water fluoridation in Wales, alternative preventive interventions would need a step-up in funding support to be deliverable.
The expectation for health boards to ensure oral cancer proposals are delivered, and that vulnerable groups have easy access to specialised care, is a helpful move. So too is the ring-fenced funding to health boards of occupational health provision and support for members of the primary care dental team. This is a step towards ensuring allocated funds are actually spent in the dental sector.
Stuart Geddes, BDA Director for Wales, said: “We welcome the Welsh Government’s intention to ‘vigorously address this inequality in experience of child tooth decay’, and their call to Health Boards to ensure strategic action is taken to meet the oral health needs of all groups of the population.
“However, dentists and their teams have worked hard to deliver improvements in oral healthcare in Wales, and need continued support in terms of adequate funding, to deliver the aspirations of the Oral Health Plan.”