Brighton & Hove 5 year olds have best teeth in the country

Press release
For immediate release

Commenting on new figures from Public Health England that show 5 year olds in Brighton & Hove have the best dental health in the country, director of public health for Brighton & Hove Tom Scanlon said:

“This is great news and shows the hard work being carried out across the city in Children’s Centres, early years services, by the council’s health visitors and the city’s NHS dental health specialists.

“NHS specialists attend baby groups to give advice to parents on things like the amount of sugar in foods and encouraging children to drink water and not juice. Brighton & Hove City Council’s health visitors take dental health very seriously and give out free toothbrushes to families.

“Advice is given to parents at the 1st sign of a tooth on how to sooth the baby and then how to look after the new tooth. Health visitors try to develop an attitude towards cleaning teeth as a fun time, good time not a struggle and a time on conflict, teeth not be cleaned by force its fun. We have promoted also Healthy Eating quality module to early years settings.”

 “The dental health specialists also give presentations to nurseries and playgroups about the importance of dental hygiene.  Many will encourage children to brush teeth while at nursery. “

Ends

For more info contact the Brighton & Hove City Council press office on 01273 291 555

Notes to editors:
Prevalence of dental decay at age five. In England, 27.9% of five-year-old children had experience of dental decay (caries), having one or more teeth that were decayed to dentinal level, extracted or filled because of caries. Across the regions, estimates ranged from 21.2% in the South East to 34.8% in the North West.

At the upper-tier local authority level, Brighton & Hove had the lowest level of dental decay at 12.5% (95% CI: +/- 6.5%) of five year olds with experience of dentinal decay (highest in Leicester where 53.2% are affected).