The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Marquess of Lothian on 2016-03-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show a significant rise in the number of dental extractions in children under 10 over the last four years; and what action they are taking to improve dental health in that age group, including access to NHS dental services.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The tables below, provided by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, shows 1) the number of admissions for children (aged 0-9 years) to hospitals in England for extractions of one or more decayed primary or permanent teeth; and 2) the numbers of courses of treatment in primary care in England that contained an extraction for a child aged 0-17, both for the years 2011/12 – 2014/15.
1)
|
Age |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
|
0-4 |
19,033 |
9,082 |
9,585 |
10,001 |
|
5-9 |
24,524 |
25,459 |
26,356 |
26,956 |
Notes:
Admissions do not represent the number of children, as a child may have more than one admission within the same period.
|
2)
|
Notes:
Figures for primary care are not available broken down for under 10s.
NHS England is working to develop contractual initiatives focussed on improving the oral health of children. This is in addition to the work within the contract reform programme, which is aimed at introducing an National Health Service dental contract with a much clearer focus on preventing future dental disease and increasing access to NHS dentistry.
Public Health England (PHE) has produced a toolkit to support local authorities in their responsibility to improve dental health and reduce inequalities among children and young people in their area. PHE has also developed guidance for dental teams on preventing dental disease in young children. Advice has also recently been published by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence.
The Government will be launching the Childhood Obesity Strategy in the summer. It will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese, including sugar which is a cause of tooth decay.
In the Budget statement on 16 March, the Chancellor announced a soft drink industry levy. This is a bold step towards protecting our children’s health.
