Concerned Dentists Call for Sugar Tax
Last year, a surprising survey told us one in eight children aged three years old suffered from tooth decay, and led to the call for sugary foods to be taxed.
According to a recent news report, concerned dentists say unhealthy, sugar-laden foods ought to be taxed and the money raised would likely close the gap in funding for the NHS dental budget.
Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen from the British Dental Association expressed a warning about the mismatched link between demand for dental treatment on the NHS and how able they are to deliver it.
He said a sugar tax is needed to increase capacity as dentistry seems to be the poor relation regarding the money invested in treating current disease levels, let alone the prevention of them. He also said the availability of cheap, unhealthy and sugar products is rotting the nation’s teeth and expanding our waistlines.
The call pressures the government to re-think their earlier refusal to place extra tax on companies manufacturing sugary food and drinks.
Official figures show that 60,000 children were admitted to hospital for tooth removal in 2012-2013.
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