{"id":109849,"date":"2025-09-02T19:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109849\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T19:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:43:12","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-the-dental-divide-ministers-must-brush-up-their-policy-as-well-as-childrens-teeth-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109849\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian view on the dental divide: ministers must brush up their policy as well as children\u2019s teeth | Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disadvantaged primary school pupils at the government\u2019s first wave of new breakfast clubs can expect to be trained in toothbrushing, as well as fed. Data showing that a fifth of all five-year-olds in England\u00a0have experienced tooth decay persuaded ministers<\/a> to make improved oral health part of the early years and reception class curriculum. But the prevalence of decay is not evenly spread across the country. And\u00a0research showing how much worse the situation is for children in deprived areas is in line with other findings about widening health inequalities.<\/p>\n

New analysis from the Local Government Association highlights the differing availability of dental care<\/a> across council areas \u2013 a situation sometimes described as a dental divide<\/a>. It found no specific correlation between the numbers of NHS dentists and young children with tooth decay. But it adds to a body of research showing that people in poorer areas are generally less well provided for. In Middlesbrough, for example, there are just 10 NHS dental practices per 100,000 people, while in wealthy Richmond upon Thames there are 28.<\/p>\n

Health inequalities are, of course, nothing new. Ensuring a more equitable distribution of healthcare \u2013 one of the greatest of all social goods \u2013 was Labour\u2019s\u00a0aim when setting up the National Health Service in the first place. But as the number of people\u00a0living in deep poverty<\/a> has increased, while healthcare costs and expectations have risen, disparities in health experiences<\/a> and outcomes between people from different socioeconomic backgrounds have become more starkly apparent. This includes a widening gap in life expectancies.<\/p>\n

Deprivation is not clearly related to the provision of all NHS services. Data on diagnostic waits<\/a> suggests a fairly even picture across England (since health is devolved, data in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is captured separately). But along with A&E admissions, which are nearly twice as high in the poorest communities, dentistry is an area in which geographical differences are troubling\u00a0\u2013 and all the more so given well\u2011established links<\/a> between poverty and other diet-related health problems, including obesity.<\/p>\n

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has pledged to reform the dental contract<\/a> within this parliament, and introduce a \u201ctie-in\u201d obliging dentists trained in the UK to work in the NHS for three years after qualifying. But it is hard to see how services in deprived areas will be improved unless funding for NHS dentistry is increased to the point where practices are viable without the cross\u2011subsidy provided by private patients. Currently, dentists\u2019 reliance on fees is a strong incentive to work in areas\u00a0with plenty of such patients.<\/p>\n

The shift of \u00a32.2bn of NHS spending <\/a>to poorer parts of the country, announced by the government in June, should make a difference to dentistry as well as health overall. But if gaps both in access and outcomes are to be narrowed, then funding for dentistry will need to be prioritised. Evidence so far suggests only modest take-up<\/a> of a \u201cgolden hello\u201d scheme of one\u2011off payments to reward dentists setting up practices in underserved areas. A parallel scheme to address localised GP shortages is at risk of being cut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A far higher proportion of dentistry than healthcare overall is delivered in the private sector.\u00a0Another lesson to be drawn from \u201cdental deserts\u201d is about what happens when market forces,\u00a0and not\u00a0democratically accountable policymakers, are in charge.<\/p>\n

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disadvantaged primary school pupils at the government\u2019s first wave of new breakfast clubs can expect to be trained…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-109849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}