With Government yet to keep its promise to expand the rollout of supervised toothbrushing programmes in schools, new research indicates huge variation in existing provision from cash-strapped local authorities.
A major national survey of existing schemes in England, published in the latest British Dental Journal, found most of the existing schemes run or commissioned by local authorities are targeted to areas of deprivation or where the prevalence of dental disease is highest. However, huge variation in coverage means children reached varied from just 70 to 10,170 per local authority, with the number of settings covered ranging from 3 to 211.
The research shows ongoing funding is essential. Despite huge returns on investment through reduced treatment need, the report found that without a sustainable, ideally recurrent, funding mechanism, it is not possible for some areas to implement a supervised toothbrushing programme at all, with 4 in 10 English councils not currently able to afford to do so.
The BDA has championed these programmes, which have secured multi-million pound savings in Wales and Scotland, as part of properly funded national programmes. It urges the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to address the postcode lottery of provision in England, and to stand up to likely Treasury pressure for hyper-targeting of any new schemes which would be a false economy.
BDA Chair Eddie Crouch said: “The Government has made the right call on supervised toothbrushing, but it needs to put its money where its mouth is. Ministers have a chance to save children pain and our NHS a fortune, but only if they are willing to invest. We need more than the current postcode lottery of provision. Austerity-fuelled hyper-targeting will not achieve the change our children deserve.”
