Dental surgeons are calling for the government in England to encourage all schools to go sugar-free in a bid to combat tooth decay.<\/p>\n
They say it is essential to cut sugar in school meals to tackle a condition affecting a quarter of five-year-olds.<\/p>\n
Dentists also want more supervised teeth-brushing in schools and guidelines on healthy packed lunches.<\/p>\n
Before leaving Downing Street, Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to improve children’s oral health.<\/p>\n
Her government produced a green paper on tackling the causes of preventable ill health.<\/p>\n
But the Faculty of Dental Surgery says that while progress has been made, more needs to be done.<\/p>\n
Tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions among five-to-nine-year-olds over the last three years, its report says.<\/p>\n
Yet figures show that 41 per cent of under-18s didn’t visit an NHS dentist last year.
\nAnd the figure is 77% among children aged between one and two, despite guidance that all children should see a dentist at least once a year.<\/p>\n
The faculty has produced a report containing 12 recommendations to try to cut down on cases of tooth decay.<\/p>\n
Prof Michael Escudier, dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “It is incredibly worrying that levels of tooth decay among children in England remain so high – especially when you consider that it is almost entirely preventable through simple steps, such as brushing twice a day with appropriate-strength fluoride toothpaste, visiting the dentist regularly and reducing sugar consumption.”<\/p>\n
He added: “The scourge of child dental decay cannot be allowed to continue.<\/p>\n
“Everyone needs to play their part in ensuring our children have healthy, happy teeth.”
\nThe Faculty of Dental Surgery said a campaign to remind people how often to take their children to a dentist, and the availability of free NHS dental care, was needed.
\nThe British Dental Association said many parents were not aware that dental check-ups and treatment for under-18s were free.<\/p>\n
And it called for investment in a national oral health programme for children in England, matching those already set up in Scotland and Wales, to help children develop good habits from an early age.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dental surgeons are calling for the government in England to encourage all schools to go sugar-free in a bid to combat tooth decay. They say it is essential to cut sugar in school meals to tackle a condition affecting a quarter of five-year-olds. Dentists also want more supervised teeth-brushing in schools and guidelines on healthy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1002,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions\/1002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}