Children’s teeth in crisis
UP TO 30,000 children a year are admitted to NHS hospitals for dental surgery, new figures revealed yesterday.
Dentists said the rising figures highlight a “major public health issue” since Labour came to power in 1997.
In total 470,113 children up to the age of 17 were treated in hospitals up to 2006.
Most had tooth decay, with eight in 10 needing a tooth out – usually under general anaesthetic.
This was a rise of 66 per cent over the period, said the study in the British Dental Journal.
Children from poor backgrounds were twice as likely to need dental treatment in hospital.
The Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb blamed the crisis on an “appalling” lack of access to NHS dentists.