Dentistry crisis: nearly half a million children across region have not seen an NHS dentist in a year

Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “It’s a scandal that, across the country, millions of children are going without basic dental care.”

Across England, more than 5.35 million children have not been seen by an NHS dentist for at least a year, House of Commons library research has shown.

That includes 459,104 kids from the region, which is 39 per cent of all children.

This is actually the joint-lowest proportion across England, with the country average sitting at 45 per cent.

However, there are still a number of dental deserts across the region.

The NHS recommends that children see a dentist at least once a year because their teeth decay faster than adults.

While tooth decay is currently the leading cause of hospital admissions for children aged between six and 10.

In North Lincolnshire, 50 per cent of children have not been seen by an NHS dentist in the last year, while in the East Riding that figure was 48 per cent.

North Yorkshire was the third-highest local authority in the region at 44 per cent.

York had the best access to NHS dentists with 31 per cent of youngsters not having a check up in a year.

The Lib Dems have pledged to offer more NHS dentist appointments and deliver free check-ups for children.

They are also calling for the reform of contracts to bring private dentists back into the NHS, and for the removal of VAT on children’s toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Ms Cooper said: “The previous Conservative government mismanaged NHS dentistry so badly that they presided over under-spends in the dentistry budget whilst children’s teeth were left to rot.

“This appalling situation cannot go on. The new government cannot waste any time in gripping this emergency and rescuing NHS dentistry to ensure our children get the care they deserve.”

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “It is unacceptable that too many people, including children, are not able to access the dental treatment they need. That’s why rebuilding NHS dentistry is a priority for this government.

“We will start with an extra 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments to help those who need it most, and reform the dental contract to encourage more dentists to offer NHS services to patients.

“Prevention is better than cure, so we will also introduce supervised tooth brushing for three to five-year-olds in the most deprived communities.”

In his speech today to close out the Liberal Democrat conference, leader Ed Davey will say the party’s focus is on “fixing the NHS and care”.

Sir Ed is expected to say: “We know that fixing the NHS will not be easy. The Conservative Government broke it so badly, over so many years, that it will take a lot of work to put it back together.”

He will add: “We will offer people hope on health. Starting with a whole new focus on community services – helping people to get care more quickly and more locally – with more GPs, more NHS dentists and more community pharmacists, so fewer people end up in hospital in the first place.”