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Risk: Nearly six million children in England have rotting teeth or are facing tooth decay
Sugary drinks, snacks between meals and poor dental checks are all blamed for the rapid deterioration of children’s teeth before they are eight.
By the time they are 17, six in ten suffer from tooth decay or gum disease, or are at risk of the problems, according to a Department of Health survey.
The worrying results come after the introduction of a ‘traffic lights’ scheme which is being trialled in 95 dentists’ surgeries in England and which the Government is hoping will lead to a revolution in dental care.
Under the new system, patients will be given a more thorough check-up than currently provided on the NHS, and then given a ‘green’, ‘amber’ or ‘red’ rating on the condition of their teeth and gums.
Initial results from the trial, seen by The Mail on Sunday, show that 28 per cent of England’s 44 million adults and 13 per cent of children under 18 have a red rating, meaning they are actively suffering from tooth decay or gum disease.
A third of children and more than half of adults are classed as amber, meaning that they are at serious risk of dental problems.
Only 16 per cent of adults and 55 per cent of children were given a green rating for healthy teeth and gums.
Every year about 30,000 children end up being admitted to hospital because of rotten teeth. Many have five or six taken out at once, with some having the whole set of 20 baby teeth removed.
Dr Stephen Fayle, a Leeds-based paediatric dentistry consultant, described the figures as ‘worrying’ and said that too many parents let their children snack throughout the day.
He added: ‘We know children who eat and drink between meals are much more likely to get dental decay.’
Consumption of ‘healthy’ pure fruit juices and products marketed as ‘no sugar added’ had also exploded, he said.
‘Parents think they are giving their children healthy drinks between meals, but they can do a lot of damage.’
Explosion: There has been a sharp rise in the number of 'no added sugar' products available on the market, but these can be high in naturally occurring sugar
‘The average level of decay in five-year-olds now is very similar to the level in 1983,’ he said.
But in poorer areas the situation was worse, with deprived children losing more teeth by five than in the early 1980s.
The pilots, which could be rolled out across the country by 2015, are designed to replace the much criticised contract, devised by Labour in 2006.
This contract is extremely unpopular with some dentists, who say it promotes a quick-fix ‘drill and fill’ approach because it offers rewards for carrying out treatment rather than keeping patients’ teeth healthy.
Last year, the Office of Fair Trading found that unscrupulous dentists were duping patients into paying millions of pounds for private treatment that should be free on the NHS.
However, Barry Cockcroft, chief dental officer for England, last night claimed the traffic-light findings were ‘not statistically robust’ and stressed: ‘There is no country in the world that has lower rates of children’s tooth decay.’
Dr Cockcroft helped preside over the 2006 contract, in which dentists are paid for how many ‘units of dental activity’ they carry out.
He admitted: ‘It seems perverse to continue to pay dentists to do more and more treatment, when the volume of disease is falling. We want to pay them according to better outcomes for patients.’
Dr John Milne, chairman of the General Dental Practice Committee of the British Dental Association, welcomed the move towards preventative dentistry as ‘a positive step forward’, but said more still needed to be done to improve children’s teeth.
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