Councillors to hear about plans to reduce oral health inequalities

An update on work to address oral health inequalities in County Durham will be presented to councillors next week.

Members of our Cabinet will hear about a range of schemes that have already been introduced to improve oral health in the county, when they meet on Wednesday, 16 October.

Measures include a successful targeted tooth brushing scheme, the promotion of the Sugar Smart campaign in schools and the introduction of a denture labelling scheme in care homes.

Councillors will also hear about proposals to extend the county's existing Community Water Fluoridation Scheme to cover tens of thousands of additional households.

Inequalities in oral health

The County Durham Oral Health Strategy reports that while children's oral health has improved over the last 20 years, more than a quarter of five-year-olds in County Durham still had tooth decay in 2016/17.

Figures from 2017 also highlight wide variations in dental decay across the county. Forty-seven per cent of children in the Peterlee East electoral ward suffered from dental decay compared to 16 per cent in areas of Derwentside, where a fluoridation scheme was introduced in the mid-1960s.

However, five-year-olds in fluoridated areas are 15 per cent less likely to have had tooth decay than those in non-fluoridated areas. Children in fluoridated communities have fewer decayed, missing and filled teeth than those in non-fluoridated areas.

A detailed technical appraisal of the proposal has been carried out by Northumbrian Water, with the company concluding that extending the scheme would be operationally viable.

Safe and effective

Cllr Lucy Hovvels MBE, our Cabinet member for adult and health services, said: "Oral health is an extremely important part of our general health and wellbeing. Having poor oral health can affect everything from our ability to eat and speak, to our ability to smile and socialise normally.

"The County Durham Oral Health Strategy outlines a range of schemes introduced to address inequalities that are present across the county. These initiatives have had some impact, but the addition of fluoride to the water supply would enable us to make a much more significant improvement to our oral health.

"Fluoride occurs naturally in virtually all water and there is significant evidence to show it is a safe and effective method of preventing tooth decay."

The scheme would cover the whole of County Durham, except for Barnard Castle and the surrounding area. This is because properties in Barnard Castle receive their water from the Teesside supply system.

However, residents in this area already have good oral health and would continue to receive other initiatives included in the County Durham Oral Health Strategy, such as tooth brushing schemes and support for employees through the Better Health at Work scheme.

Next steps

The report, being discussed on Wednesday, will ask Cabinet members to give approval for the council to write to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The authority needs the Secretary of State's agreement in order to progress to the next stage of the legal process councils are required to follow if they wish to extend a fluoridation scheme.

If the Secretary of State agrees, the council would then seek the views of residents on the proposal.

You can read the full report at Agenda for Cabinet Wednesday 16 October 2019