The Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS) at the The Royal College of Surgeons of England has launched an action paper urging the government to roll out a clear public health strategy that will tackle poor rates of oral health across the country.
The FDS called on the government to take action to tackle the rising numbers of children being admitted to hospital for tooth extractions. The FDS notes in its action paper that tooth decays are entirely preventable, but they are the most common cause of hospital admissions amongst five-nine year old children. Recent statistics reveal that 26,500 children were admitted to hospital between 2014-2015 because of a preventable tooth decay.
Not only are these tooth decays causing distress to children and parents, but they are unnecessarily straining NHS services well.
Through a report entitled, ‘Actions for the government to improve oral health’ the Faculty calls on the government to develop a clear public health strategy where oral health is part of the debate on how to tackle chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity.
Professor Nigel Hunt, Dean, Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons said that it is unacceptable that one-third of five year olds suffer from tooth decay in England.
Hunt added that the government can’t afford to wait and actions need to be taken to prevent children from reaching the stage where they need to undergo general anaesthetic in a hospital setting in the first place.
“By encouraging good oral health practice amongst children now we will decrease the likelihood of further problems into their adulthood”, Hunt added. “We want to see a clear government strategy that raises awareness of the importance of simple measures such as reducing sugar consumption or visiting a dentist and drives up standards in oral health nationally.”
In the paper, The Faculty of Dental Surgery has identified a number of areas of work for improving the state of the nation’s oral health. Some of them are outlined below:
- Policies should have prevention at the forefront to improve oral health;
- Everyone across the country should have fair access to high quality NHS dental care;
- The oral health programme should, at minimum, drive improvements in children’s oral health in England and such programmes should be introduced in areas of social deprivation where it is found there is poor oral health
- Other healthcare professionals should be further encouraged to provide preventive advice to patients
- A public health campaign that raises awareness of the impact of sugar on oral health is required
- Extending the HPV vaccine to boys is needed to help reduce the increasing rates of oral cancer
