Response to today's Children's Dental Health (CDH) Survey
19 Mar 2015
In response to today's Children's Dental Health (CDH) Survey released by HSCIC, Professor Nigel Hunt, Dean, Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons said:
"As the survey shows, oral health can have a negative impact on a child's day to day life, including eating, smiling or speaking. We need to take action to prevent children from suffering loss of confidence at such a young age.
"It is encouraging to see an improvement in rates of tooth decay amongst children aged between 12 - 15 years old. However this survey shows nearly half of 8 year olds had obvious decay showing more work needs to be done, particularly as this is a nearly entirely preventable disease.
"We continue to see social inequalities, with stark differences between standards in children's oral health in deprived areas compared to more affluent parts of the country. Further research is needed to understand why this is and how we can work together to address this variation across the country."