'The reason poorer children have worse teeth is a poorer diet,'
Decay bites ever deeper into poor children's teeth
Survey shows growing north-south gap in dental health
Anushka Asthana
Sunday September 4, 2005
The Observer
Remarkable new statistics have revealed a widening gap in the levels of decay in children's teeth in the poorest and richest parts of Britain.
Five-year-olds in some of the poorest parts of the country, such as Merthyr in Wales, North Kirklees in Yorkshire, and Argyll and Clyde in west Scotland, have an average of almost four teeth decayed, missing or filled, while their counterparts in Maidstone Weald in Kent, and Suffolk Coastal, near Felixstowe, have an average of under 0.5.
The study, by the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry, reveals that areas with the lowest rates of tooth decay are exclusively from the south of England and the Midlands. The worst areas are restricted to parts of Wales, Scotland and the north of England.
Glasgow and Lanarkshire in Scotland; Preston, Bolton, and Blackburn in Lancashire; Knowsley in Merseyside and Bradford in West Yorkshire are all in the bottom 10, each with an average of more than three decayed teeth per child.
The news comes as the government prepares to launch a dental health taskforce in child oral health that will focus on why disease levels are higher among underprivileged groups at home and abroad. It will sign up to the initiative, which is backed by the World Health Organisation and more than 40 chief dental officers, tomorrow.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'We recognise there is a significant challenge to reduce the gap between the health of people living in the most disadvantaged areas, compared to the rest of the country. This will provide valuable information for developing the government's long-term health inequalities strategy.'
She added that the problem was not restricted to children, pointing to the fact that adults in the north were twice as likely to have no teeth as those in the south.
England's chief dental officer, Professor Raman Bedi, said the taskforce was necessary because good oral health was 'fundamental' to overall health. Anousheh Alavi , a specialist dentist speaking on behalf of Colgate, which backed the survey, said that the solution was to educate parents: 'This study looked at just under 170,000 children. If we haven't the resources to repair the damage, we must look at prevention. We could educate every expectant mother. As soon as children have milk teeth they must have fluoride and get into a brushing routine. The other key thing is [to cut out] sugary snacks in between meals.'
Sugar policy will be top of the agenda tomorrow at Health Through Oral Health, a University College London conference that will bring together the country's leading experts to discuss what is driving these inequalities.
'The reason poorer children have worse teeth is a poorer diet,' said Aubrey Sheiham, professor of dental public health, UCL. 'We know if you change the taste threshold of a child, it stays with them for life. The question is how is the government going to confront the food industry?'
Paul Batchelor, an honorary senior lecturer in dental public health at UCL and national research co-ordinator of the faculty of General Dental Practice, said that the way to tackle the problem was not to focus on just the poorest areas but to help everyone: 'The government has ignored dental services for a long time; they are trying to do things now, but are tinkering around too late.'
Survey shows growing north-south gap in dental health
Anushka Asthana
Sunday September 4, 2005
The Observer
Remarkable new statistics have revealed a widening gap in the levels of decay in children's teeth in the poorest and richest parts of Britain.
Five-year-olds in some of the poorest parts of the country, such as Merthyr in Wales, North Kirklees in Yorkshire, and Argyll and Clyde in west Scotland, have an average of almost four teeth decayed, missing or filled, while their counterparts in Maidstone Weald in Kent, and Suffolk Coastal, near Felixstowe, have an average of under 0.5.
The study, by the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry, reveals that areas with the lowest rates of tooth decay are exclusively from the south of England and the Midlands. The worst areas are restricted to parts of Wales, Scotland and the north of England.
Glasgow and Lanarkshire in Scotland; Preston, Bolton, and Blackburn in Lancashire; Knowsley in Merseyside and Bradford in West Yorkshire are all in the bottom 10, each with an average of more than three decayed teeth per child.
The news comes as the government prepares to launch a dental health taskforce in child oral health that will focus on why disease levels are higher among underprivileged groups at home and abroad. It will sign up to the initiative, which is backed by the World Health Organisation and more than 40 chief dental officers, tomorrow.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'We recognise there is a significant challenge to reduce the gap between the health of people living in the most disadvantaged areas, compared to the rest of the country. This will provide valuable information for developing the government's long-term health inequalities strategy.'
She added that the problem was not restricted to children, pointing to the fact that adults in the north were twice as likely to have no teeth as those in the south.
England's chief dental officer, Professor Raman Bedi, said the taskforce was necessary because good oral health was 'fundamental' to overall health. Anousheh Alavi , a specialist dentist speaking on behalf of Colgate, which backed the survey, said that the solution was to educate parents: 'This study looked at just under 170,000 children. If we haven't the resources to repair the damage, we must look at prevention. We could educate every expectant mother. As soon as children have milk teeth they must have fluoride and get into a brushing routine. The other key thing is [to cut out] sugary snacks in between meals.'
Sugar policy will be top of the agenda tomorrow at Health Through Oral Health, a University College London conference that will bring together the country's leading experts to discuss what is driving these inequalities.
'The reason poorer children have worse teeth is a poorer diet,' said Aubrey Sheiham, professor of dental public health, UCL. 'We know if you change the taste threshold of a child, it stays with them for life. The question is how is the government going to confront the food industry?'
Paul Batchelor, an honorary senior lecturer in dental public health at UCL and national research co-ordinator of the faculty of General Dental Practice, said that the way to tackle the problem was not to focus on just the poorest areas but to help everyone: 'The government has ignored dental services for a long time; they are trying to do things now, but are tinkering around too late.'
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