School Dental Screening Plans Scrapped
Plans to reintroduce dental screening in schools have been scrapped, it has been revealed.
Guidelines released by the Department of Health in 2007 enabled Primary Care Trusts to choose whether or not to offer screening checks for schoolchildren and the Conservative Party promised to introduce free dental screening checks for all five-year-old children in their election manifesto.
However, the government has decided to reverse the manifesto pledge and claims that checks will not be reintroduced because they are “ineffective” when it comes to improving standards of oral health.
At the time of the election campaign, health minister Andrew Lansley said that 680,000 children would benefit from screening in schools and supervised brushing.
When questioned on the matter recently, Tory MP, Simon Burns, said that the party was still committed to improving standards of oral health, but the screening checks would not be reintroduced into schools because the National Screening Committee found that routine dental screening was ineffective for primary school children. The Committee found that children who required treatment following a screening session were not receiving the treatment, which was available at NHS dental practices and believe that parents have a responsibility to take their child for treatment if necessary and dental care is free for all children.
Andy Burnham, shadow health secretary, said that this was yet another example of broken promises regarding the NHS.
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