Since 2019 there has been a 37% increase in ‘obvious dental decay’ for children across the city
Oral health in Liverpool is “not in a good situation” with supervised teeth brushing sessions being delivered in schools across the city to improve outcomes for children. With nearly half of five-year-olds across Liverpool reported to have had “visually obvious dental decay” a range of measures have been rolled out to improve the health of children city wide.
According to figures released by Liverpool Council, since 2019 there has been a 37% increase in “obvious dental decay” for children. Professor Matt Ashton, director of public health, said the city would not “let the unacceptable situation” continue for the people of Liverpool.
According to a dental epidemiology survey carried out by Public Health England last year, a fifth of year six age children in the city also had visually obvious dental decay. This is higher than the national and North West average.
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Tooth extraction is still the most common hospital procedure in five to nine year olds. Almost nine out of 10 hospital tooth extractions among children aged up to five are due to preventable tooth decay.
Such was the issue facing the city’s dental health, it caused Prime Minister Keir Starmer to make it a central pillar of his health policy when visiting Alder Hey earlier this year. Throughout 2022/23 430 admissions for tooth extractions were made for people under 20 across Liverpool.
As of June this year, almost 60% of the child population of Liverpool were seen by a dentist in the previous 12 months and 36% of the adult population were seen in the previous 24 months. According to the city’s analysis, there are currently 62 dental practices in Liverpool, this equates to 54 dentists per 100,000 population.
Prof Ashton admitted access to dental services “isn’t great” but cited the work that was being carried out locally including providing toothbrush and toothpaste packs for the most deprived communities, as well as supervised toothbrushing schemes and dental screening in 10 schools across Liverpool and Knowsley each year. He added: “There are things we can and are doing locally, there are also things that need to happen in terms of more general NHS dental contract reform but we’re not going to sit back and let the unacceptable situation in dental health apply to our citizens so we’re going to work really, really hard to address this situation.”
