Figures for Dental Access for Young Children Show the North Has Better Access to NHS Dentistry
According to figures released by NHS Digital, there is a North/South divide in dental provision, however not in the way that might be expected. A young person in the North of England is more than twice as likely to have gone to see an NHS dentist before they turn two years old than in parts of Southern England.
This is in contrast to tooth decay levels, which are generally higher in the North, and the higher levels of access shows the effort made in the North by the dental profession to provide access to dental services for young children from an early age, according to the president of the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry, Claire Stevens.
The key step from there is ensuring that the South do not get left behind in terms of improvements, she continues.
The data, released as part of the Dental Check by One campaign launched on Friday, showed that Tyneside had the greatest provision of dentistry between 0-2 years, with between 35% and 40% of babies to toddlers having had their first check-up.
Lancashire, Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Leicestershire also had over a quarter of 0-2 year olds seeing a dentist, whilst some areas in the south, such as Surry, Hampshire and Berkshire had as little as 10%-15% seeing a dentist in the last year.
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