An urgent priority

A poll recently revealed that 82% of parents and 76% of teachers would like to see compulsory tooth-brushing lessons in nurseries – paid for by the government. In total, 1,200 parents took part in the poll, which also revealed most teachers (62%) are very concerned about the state of children’s teeth at their nurseries and schools.

A nationwide ‘tooth decay crisis’ has seen 36,500 children admitted to hospital a year for tooth extractions at a cost of £30.5 million and 80% of teachers don’t think parents know enough about the importance of dental health.

Joining the battle against tooth decay is the UK dental charity Dental Wellness Trust (DWT), which conducted the poll. The charity wants the government to make funding for supervised toothbrushing ‘an urgent priority across all UK nurseries and primary schools’. It believes supervised tooth-brushing programmes could save the NHS nearly £30 million.