The British Dental Association has warned children are paying too high a price for failure to fix a broken NHS dental service, as new data shows tooth decay remains the leading cause of hospital admissions among 5- to 9-year-olds. [1]
Figures from NHS England show that 21,787 children aged 5 to 9 were admitted to hospital because of tooth decay in 2025/26, compared with 11,511 admissions for acute tonsillitis.
The number of children in this age group admitted because of tooth decay has also risen from 21,162 in the previous year.
Tooth decay is largely preventable, yet thousands of children are being sent to hospital every year for costly treatment that, in far too many cases, should never have been necessary.
Figures published by the NHS Business Services Authority last month showed that nearly 40% of children had not seen an NHS dentist in the previous year. Official data published last year showed there were 49,112 episodes of tooth extractions in NHS hospitals in England for 0 to 19 year olds.
The BDA has lauded recent government effort to tackle this problem upstream – including tried and tested policies like supervised brushing in schools and bans on sales of high sugar energy drinks to children. But the professional body has warned that too little effort has gone into restoring access to care, and in dealing with the yearlong backlogs often facing children awaiting extractions. [2]
BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: “It shouldn’t be inevitable that tooth decay sends more young kids to hospital than any other condition. Decay can and should be prevented, but instead of catching it early many thousands of children reach the point where they need extractions.
“Ministers have done the right thing on programmes like supervised tooth brushing. But we cannot go on without a properly funded, functioning NHS dental service that gives children access to prevention and treatment before their problems become emergencies. Both children and taxpayers should are paying the price for the lack of political will to fix NHS dentistry.”
References:
[1] See Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity, 2025-26 – NHS England Digital, Primary diagnosis: 3 character code and description. Dental caries is coded as K02.
[2] A large proportion of paediatric extractions take place within community dental services, where government has failed to disclose waiting times, despite gathering data for nearly a year. [3] Across dentistry, yearlong waits for extractions can be the norm, and the BDA has stressed a new team at the Department of Health and Social Care must turn the page, with full waiting list transparency, and appropriate support and priority for those on the coalface, often treating some of the most vulnerable patients in society. Historically, tens of thousands of children on yearlong waiting lists. Thousands of children in England facing ‘heartbreaking’ waits for NHS dental care | Children’s health | The Guardian The Government began collecting new data on waiting times on a monthly basis since August 2025, but officials have not published any data, and have declined Freedom of Information requests. Many recent parliamentary questions have sidestepped the matter entirely.
