Labour has pledged to bring in supervised toothbrushing in schools for three- to-five-year olds as part of a wider ‘rescue plan for NHS dentistry’, ahead of the party’s conference in Liverpool.
The scheme would be targeted at areas with the highest childhood tooth decay and aims to tackle the issue of the high numbers of children requiring operations to have rotting teeth removed.
Figures show that one in three children living in the most deprived areas of England suffer from tooth decay, and are three times more likely to have rotting teeth than children in the least deprived areas.
Tooth decay is the most common reason for children aged six-to-10 to be admitted to hospital.
Government statistics show that 42,000 children went to hospital to have teeth removed in 2021/22, 26,700 of whom had tooth decay as their main diagnosis.
