How to Best Revamp Children’s Dental Health | Letters
As a former practicing NHS and private dentist, and now an archaeological scientist focusing on teeth, it concerns me that we are still fixated on brushing as a means of preventing tooth decay in children, with Labor saying that supervised teeth brushing in schools will roll out. three- to five-year-olds (Pingers, abscesses and aching pain: Britain’s dental crisis – seen from A&E, January 30). Tooth decay is caused by the presence of sugar in the mouth, and prevention should focus on the frequency of sugar intake. Limiting sugars (refined or considered natural, such as in fruit juices and honey) to main meals would have a much greater effect than any amount of brushing.
We archaeologists in England call the period when refined sugar was unavailable to most of the population BC: Before Cadbury’s.
Doctor Julia Beaumont
Bingley, Bradford
The painful state of dentistry points clearly to where the current trajectory of the NHS is leading for all services: a two-tiered service, where ability to pay will determine access to good care. The tragic lack of ambition in Labour’s recovery proposals (700,000 extra appointments, supervised cleaning in schools – little more than a sticking plaster) would see Nye Bevan resign again if he were still fighting for universal care.
In addition to a new dental contract, we now need a bold commitment to a government-provided NHS (including the abolition of dental fees) and an end to private involvement; an NHS that is funded to succeed, not disempowered to fail; respect and decent wages and conditions for all healthcare workers; reinvestment in public health and an attack on health inequality; and a rebuilt, restored and expanded service fit for the pandemic era. This is not only necessary to support a strong economy, but will also add enormous value to people’s lives.
Dr. John Puntis
Co-chair, Keep our NHS public; retired consultant pediatrician
The recent article on access to emergency dental care in Britain is clearly not about Britain but about England. In Scotland, access to routine care is similarly limited by the post-pandemic, post-Brexit shortage of dentists, but emergency and urgent NHS care is available to all, including at weekends.
School nurses and dentists in England may see an increased prevalence of tooth decay in children, but the evidence in Scotland, from the annual national dental inspection program, is that the expected increase in caries (tooth decay) has not been realized. However, the share of treated decay has decreased.
Tooth extraction remains the most common reason for small children to be admitted to hospital in the UK, but that is a significant improvement on the situation 30 years ago, when admission for dental extractions in children exceeded all other reasons combined.
Morag Curnow
Caputh, Perth and Kinross
Before the creation of the NHS, all dentistry was private. The only treatment that was affordable for many people was to have all their teeth extracted. I saw an article in a trade magazine from about 90 years ago that estimated that 40% of the population at the time had no teeth.
Unfortunately, Gibson
Ledbury, Herefordshire