Crackdown on tooth decay hailed

NHS figures released last year revealed Sheffield children have the worst tooth decay in Britain, with a total of 1,140 – from toddlers up to age 10 – having rotting teeth removed in the city’s hospitals in 2014/15.

Separate data from Public Health England also shows that the average five-year-old child in the city has one decayed, missing or filled tooth, which is above the national average.

Now, an innovative scheme which has seen ‘toothbrushing clubs’ set up in nurseries and schools in Sheffield is being rolled out as part of an oral health strategy, which is set to focus on tackling the sale of sugary drinks.

The initiative, which has been running in 26 primary schools and nurseries since 2014, has seen children provided with free toothbrushes and toothpaste. Teachers have also been given training and are equipped with the skills they need to ensure youngsters learn about the importance of regularly brushing their teeth from an early age.

Toothbrushing clubs are now being set up at 40 extra schools and nurseries, in a scheme overseen by Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Teaching Hospital Trust’s oral health promotion team.

Greg Fell, the council’s director of public health, said: “The percentage of children with decayed, missing or filled teeth is going down, so we are cautiously optimistic. We recognise the importance of continuing to carry out this kind of work.

“The schools and nurseries love it, the kids enjoy it and parents are finding their children are thinking differently about it. The point is to get children into the habit of brushing their teeth at home.”

But Mr Fell said the next step was to tackle sugar consumption and praised a successful initiative run by the Sheffield City Trust charity, which has seen a group of leisure centres impose a 20p tax on fizzy drinks over the last year.

He said: “They have noticed a 25 per cent fall in the sales of soft drinks, but there hasn’t been a drop in sales overall, which is really good.

“Sheffield sports centres have shown us it can be done, so I want to know when the rest of the city will follow suite. That’s the challenge and I will be trying to devise a workable plan over the next couple of months.”

Annie Farrell, the nursery manager at Meynell Nursey, in Southey Green, has been running a tooth brushing club since 2014, and said: “We encourage all the children to clean their teeth every day before they eat. We talk to the children about the importance of toothbrushing and parents have told us that children have been eager to clean their teeth at home.”

Each year the nursery runs a session to explain what is done in the toothbrushing clubs and to support parents in their understanding of good practice.

Jim Rutherford, a dentist at Pitsmoor Dental Health Centre, said: “I often see the worst problems with children who constantly consume food and drinks with a high sugar content. Toothbrushing clubs help to reinforce the importance of good brushing and a low sugar diet to children and their parents.”

South Yorkshire towns and cities had the three worst figures for children suffering tooth decay in 2014/2015, with 833 children admitted for tooth removal in Doncaster and 798 in Rotherham.