Untreated Tooth Decay is Still Prevalent in Children Aged 3 to 11, new research finds
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 12th August 2022
New data from an independent oral health survey commissioned by one of the UK’s leading oral health charities, Dental Wellness Trust shows untreated tooth decay is still prevalent in children aged 3 to 11 and reaffirms the charity’s call for the Government to fund more preventative measures to tackle the UK’s current oral health crisis. This comes at a time when half of all children in England don’t have access to an NHS dentist.
Out of a total of 332 children screened in two schools in north London, overall 38% had active untreated cavitated caries (i.e. untreated tooth decay) in their primary teeth. In the children that had untreated tooth decay, an average of 3.6 teeth per child were affected. Rather worryingly, only 42 children had a filling present (i.e. treated cavitated caries) on their primary teeth – that is just 12% of all children in these schools.
Untreated tooth decay was particularly prevalent in children between the age of 5 and 10 years old (approximately 50% in each age group) – with boys more likely to have untreated tooth decay than girls. Importantly, children aged 4 already had a lot of tooth decay, thus reinforcing the need for early education and prevention to be implemented pre-school. This is emphasised by the fact that only 11 children had a caries preventive sealing on their primary teeth – that is just 3% of all children in these schools.
Dr Linda Greenwall, founder of the Dental Wellness Trust, says: “This situation is set to get even worse following the pandemic, dental practices being forced to close and children consuming food and drinks packed with excessive sugar. Many are now suffering agonising pain, cannot sleep at night or concentrate at school and end up missing classes – in addition to emergency dental appointments for antibiotics and extractions. Evidence show that delays in preventative care could result in children developing more tooth decay, especially when it starts in childhood, and this is the strongest indicator of risk into adulthood.
“From the work that we do, we know that national strategies such as oral health prevention and toothbrushing programmes in schools and nurseries is one way of supporting this long overdue ‘prevention better than cure’ ethos and we call on the Government and local authorities for more urgent funding and support. Tooth decay remains one of the most common non-communicable diseases worldwide yet for too long so many children have suffered unnecessarily, especially among the Covid generation of pre-school children who have never seen a dentist or delayed seeing one for too long.”
