Thousands of children not being seen by dentist before age of three
Guidance says that they should be seen when milk teeth appear at around six months.
Half of parents say their children have not been seen by a dentist by age three despite guidance to visit when their first milk teeth appear after six months, a survey has found.
Denplan’s Oral Health Survey 2024, published today, reveals that only 45% of parents said they have taken or planned to take their children to the dentist before they turn three years-old.
NHS guidance recommends taking a child to the dentist when their baby teeth appear – at between six months and a year – so the dentist can identify any oral health problems at an early stage, advise on how to prevent tooth decay and get children familiar with going to a dentist.
Currently tooth decay is still the number one reason children aged 6-10 are admitted to hospital.
Catherine Rutland
One in five (21%) parents say their children brush less than twice per day or not at all, an increase from one in seven (14%) in 2023.
Parents welcomed further education on oral healthcare habits, with 86% agreeing that good habits should be taught in childhood to improve health for life. Almost four in ten parents (37%) think governments should implement oral health education in schools to help tackle the current children’s dental crisis.
However, when questioned on whose responsibility it is, a majority of parents (89%) think they should be responsible for supervised toothbrushing, with only 29% saying teachers.
Catherine Rutland, dentist and clinical director at Denplan, said: “Unfortunately, many parents think ‘they’re only baby teeth so there’s no need to go to the dentist’. However, baby teeth can stay with us until we’re around 12 years old. Currently tooth decay is still the number one reason children aged 6-10 are admitted to hospital, which is deeply saddening.
“Many parents are also unaware that brushing should still be supervised by an adult every day until children are over seven years old to be confident they’re doing it correctly.”
BrightBites, Denplan’s partnership with Dentaid, The Dental Charity, aims to reach 90,000 school-aged children through a fun and engaging oral healthcare education programme. Programme locations are chosen based on social indicators such as the number of children receiving free school meals, which aligns with BrightBites’ mission to target schools in lower socio-economic areas.
Andy Evans, chief executive of Dentaid, said: “Every day we see the impact of poor dental health at our charity dental clinics and the effect this has on our patients’ confidence, prospects and wellbeing. We know that instilling knowledge about the importance of dental health from an early age is critically important.
“The joy of BrightBites is that it’s an innovative, fun-filled programme that can be delivered by anyone at schools, nurseries and community groups across the UK – focused on areas of social deprivation. The children learn so much from the sessions and ask lots of questions, which really helps them to grasp knowledge about the importance of healthy diets, toothbrushing and going to see the dentist.”
To mark the launch of this year’s report, Denplan ran a BrightBites workshop with Dentaid, teaching children about oral healthcare at school. Videos and photos from the session are available here.
The full Oral Health Survey is available here.
Deltapoll interviewed 5,035 adults in Britain online between 2nd and 7th August 2024. The data have been weighted to be representative of the British adult population as a whole.