100,000 extra dental appointments for children promised

Labour’s Child Health Action Plan will tackle the crisis in children’s dentistry, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said on June 11, 2024. The plan was announced during a visit by shadow health secretary Wes Streeting in the northeast of England.

This comes as Labour pledges an extra 100,000 urgent and emergency dental appointments for children and the introduction of supervised toothbrushing for three to five-year-olds to tackle the crisis in children’s dentistry.

Figures revealed that the crisis in NHS dentistry under the Conservatives led to 540,000 fewer children seeing a dentist last year than in 2018. Based on current trends, if the Conservatives win another term, there will be five million fewer dentistry appointments over the next five years.

One in six children aged 11 has decaying teeth, with 11,000 11-year-olds reporting they are ashamed to speak because of problems with their oral health.