UK -Anger as survey finds 1 in 3 five-year-olds have rotting teeth

Nearly one in three children in Kirklees already has tooth decay by the age of five - far worse than the national average, new figures reveal.

Youngsters had on average 4 rotten teeth and most had been left untreated thanks to a shortage in NHS dentists, a survey found.

The horrific levels of decay, highlighted by a Public Health England (PHE) survey, have been blamed on over consumption of sugary food such as juices, yoghurts, sweets and biscuits and a lack of teeth brushing.

Dental health campaigners have slammed the latest results as "unacceptable" after they showed no improvement on figures in 2017.

They have called for parents to do more about their children's diets and dental hygiene.

Extraction of teeth in young children often involves admission to hospital and surgery under general anaesthetic.

Nationally, the data shows that a third of children from more deprived areas (34.3%) had decay, more than double the rate for children from less deprived areas (13.7%).

The figures make grim reading for Kirklees health chiefs where 31.2% of five-year-olds had evidence of tooth decay in 2019, compared with a national average of 23.4%.