UK Health Radio Medical News Update - Children's Dental Health Crisis

UK Health Radio Medical News Update

Harsh words from a dental charity today that says that child neglect is to blame for "absolutely appalling" levels of children who are admitted to hospital to have their teeth removed. NHS figures show that this is the most common reason for children in England to be admitted to hospital.  Sadly some of those need all 20 of their baby teeth removed.

The British Dental Health Foundation said some parents were not paying enough attention to the importance of caring for their child's teeth.  Figures from three years ago showed that 22,574 children aged five to nine were admitted with rotting teeth that needed extraction but provisional figures for the year beginning April 2013 show that this number has now climbed to 25,812.

Dr Nigel Carter, the chief executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, told the BBC that children were not given the correct diet, and that they were getting too many sugary drinks. He said that little or no attention was been given to oral hygiene regimes and children were not being taken along to the dentist when their first teeth come through, only visiting the dentist when a child was in pain with a mouthful of rotten teeth.

Prof Susan Jebb, of the University of Oxford, said: "Once they've been weaned, 'Children should be drinking water' is absolutely the message. Milk is fine, but that should be the mainstay of our advice."

One 330ml can of fizzy pop would take a typical adult up to the proposed 5% daily allowance - and would exceed a child's daily allowance - without allowing for sugar from any other source.

Fizzy sugar drinks, smoothies and fruit juices, have already been criticised as a cause of child obesity, and re to blame for rotting teeth too. Kathryn Harley, a paediatric dentist, said: "We see an awful lot in the media linking sugar to obesity and other health problems and not enough about the link between sugar in the diet and oral health."

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio Medical News Update

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