Children’s dental health improves in Scotland
A 24% increase in the improvement of children’s dental health in Scotland since 2000 has been announced.
New data has revealed that 69% of 5-year-olds have no obvious signs of tooth decay. However, figures from the National Dental Inspection Programme also reveal a huge gap between 5-year olds from more affluent areas and the lowest income households. Only 55% of the most deprived areas are free from tooth decay in comparison to 82% from the least deprived.
Despite the overall improvement in children’s dental health, Scotland still lags behind countries of similar development, such as England and Norway. Comparable figures show that two-thirds (75%) of 5-year olds in England are decay-free, with broadly similar figures for Norway (73-86%).
Robert Donald, Chair of the British Dental Association’s (BDA) Scottish Dental Practice Committee, said that “Scotland is leading the way in investing in children’s dental health. The huge improvement we have seen in youngsters’ teeth since the millennium is the testament to investing in an early years’ prevention scheme, which operates in our nurseries and schools.Undoubtedly ChildSmile has saved many young children from distress, days out of education, and ultimately avoidable dental treatment.”
“However, despite this improvement Scotland is still playing catch-up with our neighbour south of the border, so there is no scope for standing still. There is no escaping either the fact that far too many children from our most disadvantaged communities still bear the burden of tooth decay, a largely preventable disease,” he continued to say.
Donald then went on to note that “Government ministers must continue to invest in ChildSmile, to tackle this unacceptable inequality in dental health.The BDA has also called on the Scottish government to expand the ChildSmile programme to 5 to 12-year-olds and we have championed wide-ranging action on sugar, including taxation, public education and marketing, and for proceeds from the sugar levy to be directed into oral health initiatives.”
