Shock tooth decay statistics
50% of children under 5 in Nottingham have never visited a dentist. In addition 44% have one or more filled, decayed or missing baby tooth.
These scandalous statistics were pointed to by health bosses who have launched a campaign to try and stem the flood of tooth decay engulfing the children of the East-Midlands city. The recently launched Smiles Campaign is targeted at parents and children across the city in a bid to increase their awareness of oral hygiene.
The Head of Oral Health at NHS Nottingham City, Richard McCallum, spoke about the reasons the campaign has been launched.
“Where you have almost half of children in Nottingham having experienced decay by the time they are five, it is quite worrying,” he said.
“Obviously tooth decay can present several problems at different levels. I think quite often what has caused the tooth decay is a bad diet. If you lose your teeth too early you can lose space so that the second teeth don’t come through properly.
“This can cause people to have to go to orthodontists and losing teeth can affect speech.
The statistics hide a lot of things. Overall in Nottingham tooth decay has decreased, but with five-year-olds this ranges from children who have no decay to some who have 17 out of 20 teeth decayed. Overall in Nottingham tooth decay has decreased, but with five-year-olds this ranges from children who have no decay to some who have 17 out of 20 teeth decayed.”
The campaign, organised by NHS Nottingham City, will be launched in Aspley, the scene of the highest volume of emergency dentists visits in the past two years.
At the launch, 30 mums and kids will brush their teeth for two minutes to remind of the essentialness of brushing teeth twice a day for 2 minutes. Additionally entertainer Mrs Sparkle will use face painting, magic and puppets to try and show kids that looking after your teeth can be fun.
Mr McCallum concluded,
‘The main thing behind this campaign is making taking care of children’s teeth fun and easy to do. We are also doing a lot with dental practices, making them a lot more family friendly. To me the most disturbing thing is when a child goes to the dentist for the first time when they are in pain. This means they immediately associate the dentist with pain. We need to get people going to the dentist early, quite a high percentage of people only choose to go when they are in pain. When we did the last audit of 12-year-olds with decayed teeth, Broxtowe came out worse, but other areas of the county are a lot better. Rushcliffe is the best area in the East Midlands for dental health.”
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