Britain's rotten teeth

 

Britain's rotten teeth boroughs! The towns and cities with the WORST dental decay in children

• More than 33,000 children had their decayed teeth surgically removed last year as a result of a lack of brushing, poor diet and sugary drinks
• Children as young as five-years-old are being referred to hospital to have up to 18 of their milk teeth pulled out, experts say 
• Youngsters in Yorkshire and Humberside have the worst teeth in England, with around 7,600 children having their teeth removed at hospital 

Efforts in Scotland and Wales to tackle poor dental hygiene among children

Scotland and Wales have been leading the way on improving child oral health.

Their early intervention preventive initiatives ChildSmile and Designed2Smile have led to unprecedented improvements in outcomes in these countries in recent years. 

Childsmile, which supports supervised tooth-brushing in primary schools and nurseries, and provides twice yearly fluoride varnishes to children, is said to be saving £5m a year in treatment costs.

In England, the Government recently launched an oral health prevention scheme called Starting Well. 

But the scheme is currently limited to just 13 local authorities, and is being funded from within existing dental spend.