Children’s oral health gets a mention in NHS Long Term Plan

The NHS Long Term Plan does not have a specific chapter or reference for oral health, but it does feature in Chapter 3: Further progress on care quality and outcomes/ A strong start in life for children and young people/ Redesigning other health services for children and young people, which is a step in the right direction given the fact that it was not mentioned at all in previous NHS strategies. The Plan pledges investment to facilitate children getting the treatment they need. Brief as it is, this allusion to children’s oral health has been graciously received by the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry which has been working hard to get oral health more widely recognised as an indication of general well-being and necessary for prevention.
The relevant section is 3.44 which states: local areas will design and implement models of care that are age appropriate, closer to home and bring together physical and mental health services. These models will support health development by providing holistic care across local authority and NHS services, including primary care, community services, speech and language therapy, school nursing, oral health, acute and specialised services. The Starting Well Core initiative is supporting 24,000 dentists across England to see more children from a young age to form good oral health habits, preventing tooth decay experienced by a quarter of England’s five year olds.
Spokesperson for BSPD, Claire Stevens, said: “It’s really good to see recognition for oral health in the NHS Long Term plan. I am delighted that there is a mention for Starting Well, the prevention programme launched in 2017 in high priority areas. We would like to see this extended into other areas where there are high levels of dental decay.”