There have been more than 218,000 hospital admissions for tooth decay since 2018, according to statistics from the Liberal Democrats.
The 218,000 stat, which was obtained via freedom of information requests sent to 64 NHS trusts, includes over 104,000 children.
There were around 31,000 people hospitalised with tooth decay in 2023 – 52% of these cases were children. This is the equivalent of 85 hospital admissions a day, and 44 being people aged 18 or under.
House of Commons library stats further showed that 4.4 million (40%) children had not visited an NHS dentist in the last 12 months, while 22 million (52%) adults had not seen a dentist in the past two years.
This comes in the midst of previous research indicating that the NHS’s budget for dentistry had been underspent by £400m in the last financial year.
To help the situation, the Liberal Democrat Party says it would launch an emergency scheme to ensure children have access to free check-ups on time.
This would come alongside:
- Supervised tooth brushing training for children in early years settings
- Removal of the VAT on children’s toothbrushes and toothpaste
- A reformed NHS dental contract to increase the number of appointments on offer
Responding to the data, the NHS Confederation’s ICS network director, Sarah Walter, said: “The fact that so many children are being admitted to hospital with tooth decay is very saddening and highlights the historic lack of investment and decline in NHS dentist numbers over the last decade.
“Improving access to dental services is a priority for NHS leaders, who would welcome a focus on children and community dentistry services which serve many of the most vulnerable in our communities. But things will not get better overnight, with integrated care systems (ICS) only delegated funding and responsibility for primary dental services last April.”
She continued: “Some ICSs are doing incredible work to improve access to care and treat more patients. But efforts to tackle the problems have been undermined by a number of issues including the cost of industrial action, inflation and the cost of living crisis.
“While ICSs and providers will continue to do their best, they are struggling to invest in new schemes and there is little doubt that additional funding will be needed to boost capacity and improve children’s oral health.”
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