Tooth decay and dental health still poor in children despite improvements - University of Leeds warn
Children's access to NHS dentists and rates of tooth decay remain very poor despite improvements from national government interventions, a University of Leeds led study has warned.
Analysis of the latest government data by the Child of the North initiative gives cause for cautious optimism, oral health experts say, but the schemes need to be scaled up and strengthened to meet the needs of young people.
The latest update, titled Improving Children’s Oral Health Update: Integrated Health and Education Solutions, is the seventh to be released as part of the Child of the North’s #ChildrenFirst campaign. It comes one year since the initiative exposed the unacceptable state of children’s oral health, and evidence-based solutions to address it.
The update commends government action taken in the past year to improve children’s oral health, including introduction of a national supervised toothbrushing programme; plans for the expansion of water fluoridation in the North East of England; consultation on the expansion of the soft drinks industry levy; and bans on both the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children and on junk food advertising before 9pm.
Peter Day, Professor of Children's Oral Health in the University of Leeds’ School of Dentistry and Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “These are exciting times. While disease levels remain stubbornly high - impacting our most vulnerable children and families - the government has taken important steps to implement the policy recommendations outlined in our original report.
“As we transition into delivery mode, evaluating the impact of these policies is essential. Engagement from schools and nurseries will be critical. We must capture the broader benefits, particularly those affecting education, such as attendance, school readiness, and attainment.”
#ChildrenFirst builds on a major series of reports produced last year on key topics identified by Northern child health leaders as major issues of concern, including poverty, special educational needs, school attendance and mental health. The reports included evidence-based plans and recommendations for policymakers to help address these issues.
The #ChildrenFirst campaign also includes the launch of toolkits designed to help schools, child health workers and local authorities take practical steps to improve the health and wellbeing issues faced by the children and young people in their care. Organisations can download the toolkits free of charge.
The toolkits provide evidence and suggestions about how all parties can work together to build a country that works for all children and young people. The goal is to ensure alignment between practitioners on the ground and government’s work on the Opportunity Mission to make certain that every child has the best possible start in life.
“There has been no real improvement in children’s oral health for nearly 10 years and our first national report published in September 2024 called for urgent action. Since then there have been major new ambitious initiatives announced with real potential to address this worrying trend,” said Zoe Marshman, Professor in Dental Public Health at the University of Sheffield, who co-led the report alongside Professor Day.
“To achieve this potential requires partnership working across national and local government with child education and health professionals engaging with parents and children. Universities are key to evaluating the impact of these initiatives on dental disease and child wellbeing.”
Both researchers have acted as advisors on the UK Government’s ‘supervised toothbrushing programme’, which aims to reach up to 600,000 children in the most deprived areas. Their research shows that the programme has been rolled out to 240,000 children across schools and nurseries since launching in March this year.
Each of the 12 reports is based on in-depth research carried out by academic experts in children and young people’s health and wellbeing from universities across the North of England and beyond, including N8 Research Partnership members Leeds, Manchester, Durham, York, Lancaster, Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle, the University of Bradford, and others.
The policy recommendations made in the reports have helped to shape the Government's Opportunity Mission - the goal of which is to break down the link between a person’s background and their future success, and giving children the best start in life.
The 2025 #ChildrenFirst campaign was launched at the National Opportunity Summit hosted in Leeds on Monday, September 8, where Minister Josh MacAlister pledged his support towards building a country that works for all children on his first day as Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department for Education.
Professor Mark Mon-Williams, who edited the report series, said: “The number of children with rotten teeth is a powerful indicator of the wider decay in child wellbeing that is affecting millions of young lives across the UK.
“This report shows that we can make progress when health, education, and policy work hand in hand. We must now ensure these efforts to improve outcomes for all children reach every community. Good oral health is one of the essential components needed if we are to give every child the best chance to achieve and thrive in school and beyond.”
The report shows that despite these improvements, children living in England’s most deprived communities are still over three times as likely to be admitted to hospital for tooth extractions than those living in more affluent areas. It also shows:
- Children living in the most deprived areas of England are more than twice as likely to experience decay as those living in the least deprived areas.
- 26.9% of five-year-olds have tooth decay.
- In West Yorkshire, 950 school days were lost for dental reasons across nine schools in one academic year.