According to data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, the total number of younger children requiring dental treatment has increased significantly since 2011. Overall, there have been 128,558 cases of children aged 10 and under needing one or more teeth out for the past 5 years.
The data showed that there were 14,445 cases of children aged five or less from April 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015, in the country. The report also showed that there were another 19,336 cases for those aged six to ten years during the period.
Overall, the data claimed that there has been a rise of almost 10% in child hospital admissions for severe tooth decay in England over a four-year period. 33,781 children suffered from teeth decay during 2014-2015, much more compared to 32,741 cases in 2013-2014, 31,275 in 2012-2013 and 30,761 in 2011-2012.
“Not only is tooth decay distressing to children and parents, it has serious social and financial implications. The need for tooth extraction continues to be the number one reason why five to nine-year-old children are admitted to hospital” Professor Nigel Hunt, Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, said.
Professor Hunt added that this issue needs to be urgently addressed, especially since 90% of tooth decay is preventable. He said better oral health education was needed but that was only part of the answer.
Answers to the problem
The professor called for more Government and dental professionals action, saying they should work together to raise awareness of the impact of sugar on teeth and improve children’s access to NHS dental services.
On the other side, according to the government, Access to NHS dentists is improving, with 30 million patients seen by a dentist in the two years leading up to September 2015, an increase of 100,000 on the previous year.
Source: NHV
Follow the sugar.
yup they have bad teeth. usa has fat ppl. and proly just as many bad teeth.
yup they have bad teeth. usa has fat ppl. and proly just as many bad teeth.
That shows how well managed care (neglect) works. US isn’t far behind now.
the UK does not have “managed care”, which is a US health insurance company invention to make clinicians responsible for the medical care costs of their patients., Rather the NHS used to provide “universal care”. Until recently,dental health has been improving in UK. Now that United Health Care and other multinational health insurance companies are pushing their way into the NHS and privatizing it, the Brits will have as poor a dental care system as the US does soon.
Sad about the demise of the NHS.
Sue S
Actually I am a dentist. Managed care either from an insurance company or government results in lowering the quality of care. (As proven in the US and England.) Actually private insurance will probably raise the quality of care there to a more tolerable substandard level. The only thing the government can do efficiently is collect taxes. Let the private sector run everything else.
I am a nurse practitioner and nurse midwife in private practice for the past 27 years, now with two family practice doctors. Our business hasn’t made money for years–we’re surviving off one of the partner’s social security and salaries from being the county and jail and nursing home doctor. “Urgent Care” has captured much of the easy visits, and the private health insurance companies are becoming more and more onerous to work with. We have to hire a full-time person to act as a referral clerk to get patients approved for required procedures and surgeries.
Dentists in the US are not squeezed by the government like physicians and NPs are. Dentists are not compelled to accept insurance. Dentists don’t have a clue what it’s like to work with multiple insurance companies mandating which drugs they will pay for, which procedures and surgeries they will cover, how long patients can stay in hospital and nursing homes, how much we get paid for for an office visit, etc. The “private sector” is doing a lousy job caring for patients, many of whom are finding they have to choose between buying insulin or eating, for instance. insulin is all brand-name now, and is very expensive, as are many essential medications that used to cost very little. Most of my poor patients have no to some teeth, since they can’t afford dental care, and the only dentist in the county who accepts Medicaid will only fill and pull teeth, and does not provide other dental services.
Until dentists are burdened with the same draconian rules for payment as doctors, they will have no idea what’s happening with “private sector” health insurance.
Sue S
Many of my family and friends are physicians, so I beg to differ with you. Your example of Mediaid only pulling teeth etc is exactly what happens when the government tries to run healthcare. The quality and access to care suck.
With mommy and daddy knowing that dental care is free in the UK, why would these people concern themselves with insuring that the kid brushes his/her teeth properly and frequently. No point in spending money on toothpaste. Besides, all kids in England have rotting teeth.
Obviously!. all brits teeth are abortions
Should be obvious, since the UK doesn’t believe in dental care.
Lotta bad grills in the UK