Moves to tackle ‘juice culture’ in city with tooth decay problem

Nearly half of five-year-olds in Hull suffer from tooth decay.

As part of Hull’s draft oral health plan, health visitors will hand out packs including toothpaste, toothbrush and the beakers to parents of babies when their first tooth has erupted at around three months old.

Measures including extending a supervised tooth brushing programme to five to seven-year-olds in the most deprived wards were barely discussed, however, at a scrutiny committee meeting yesterday.

Councillors were more concerned about the support, without the facts to back it up, expressed in the plan for fluoridating the city’s water supplies.

The proposal has already caused an outcry, with hundreds signing petitions opposing the move. Hull is understood to be in the vanguard of five other cities considering the move.

Chair Coun Danny Brown said the draft plan, which is about to go out to consultation, was not specifically about fluoridisation, and that would have to be treated separately. But Liberal Democrat councillor Abigail Bell said its wording including support for “universal interventions to benefit the whole population” would be taken as backing for fluoridisation.

Councillors were told the next step will be a feasibility study which the council will have to request from Yorkshire Water.

The report now goes to today’s health and well being board, with the recommendation that the plans for fluoridation are subject to separate reports and consultation.

Dental assistant Sarah Feldt, from Hull’s 543 Dental Centre, said: “Constantly grazing on a bottle of juice is really bad for teeth, we try to get kiddies on a cup as quick as possible.

“With a free flow cup you take a quicker mouthful and it’s not held in the mouth so long.”

Chris Groombridge, secretary of the local dental committee, and who chairs the Teeth Team charity, which teaches children at 32 city primary schools how to look after their teeth, said there was “no magic bullet”.

He said: “Most important is in-surgery prevention followed by a tooth brushing programme, fluoride varnish and water fluoridation. When children are in school you can brush their teeth, apply tooth varnish, the question is what happens when they are on holiday? We are recommending tooth brushing kits to take home, which is in the plan. It is about trying to cover all the bases.”

Mr Groombridge said he and chair of the dental network Simon Hearnshaw, and chair of the local dental committee Richard Berry would like to see targeted fluoride varnish for children aged three to seven in the most deprived wards included in the plan.

The varnish applied on teeth to prevent decay is available - but only to under 70 per cent of the population who, according to latest figures, access a dentist. He said: “We feel 30.6 per cent are missing out on something which could give a great benefit.”

As for fluoridisation that would take much longer - at least three years in the best case scenario. He said: “Everybody needs to take a step back and look at the facts. It is very emotive and emotional and I can totally understand that. But what it needs to be judged on is facts - not fear and emotion.”