New figures show increase in preventative dental treatments

Preventative treatments offered by dental hygienists and therapists have become the most popular dental treatments provided in England, according to new data.

Statistics from the Health and Social Care Information Centre have revealed that scale and polish treatments made up 45.2 percent of all treatments for adults in the 24-month period to 30 June 2015, while fluoride varnish treatments were most common in children.

While there was an increase of 0.9 percent in the number of dentists working under the NHS during 2014/15, there was a small decrease of 0.2 percent in the amount of patients seen.

These findings will be used by the Department of Health to inform future government policy on NHS dentistry, and by local NHS managers in the planning and delivery of local dental services.

Dr Mick Horton, dean of the Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: "It is clear that adults and children need to visit their dentist regularly to aid in the early detection of any problems and allow the Dental Care Team to give preventative advice and treatment where necessary."