Children: Oral Health - Question

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 2:36 pm on 4 December 2017.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lord O'Shaughnessy Lord O'Shaughnessy The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health 2:36, 4 December 2017

The noble Baroness is right to highlight this important issue. Twice as many five to nine year-olds are admitted to hospital with tooth decay as are admitted with broken arms—that is how bad the problem is. It has improved in recent years: 75% of all five year-olds have no sign of physical decay, up from 69% in 2008. Supervised tooth-brushing is part of the “Starting Well” programme, but Public Health England and local authorities are responsible for commissioning and will look at the results to see whether it can be rolled out into general dentistry practice.