North-south divide as data shows amount of children with rotting teeth rising
11 February 2025, 13:36
The proportion of five-year-olds with rotting teeth is rising in the North East, London and the South West, figures show.
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Official data shows as many as six in 10 children in some areas have rotting teeth by the age of five, with clear differences between poorer regions of England and the more affluent.
At a regional level, Manchester has the highest percentage of five-year-olds with enamel and/or dentinal decay, with 60.8 per cent of children affected there in 2024.
This is followed by South Hams in Devon (49.6 per cent), Pendle in Lancashire (49.0 per cent) and Salford (48.2 per cent).
Rochford in Essex had the lowest percentage (4.9 per cent), followed by St Albans (6.0 per cent), North Hertfordshire (6.9 per cent) and Bromsgrove (8.0 per cent).
The figures relate to five-year-olds with any enamel and/or dentinal decay and show that 37.0% of children in the most deprived areas are affected - more than double the 18.0% for the least deprived areas.
The data shows a clear North-South divide, with the three highest percentages (not including London) all in northern England.
While England as a whole has seen a drop in the percentage of children with enamel and/or dentinal decay - from 29.3 per cent in 2022 to 26.9 per cent in 2024 - it has risen in the North East, from 26.0 per cent to 27.7 per cent.
In the South West, the percentage has jumped from 23.3% to 24.2 per cent, and from 28.5 per cent in London to 30.0 per cent.
One of the main causes of enamel erosion is acids found in food and drink.
The report said: "It is especially important to determine the proportion of children with enamel decay who do not yet have dentinal decay, as in the past, children were often regarded as 'free of decay'."
For dentinal decay alone (excluding enamel decay), some 23.7 per cent of children in 2022 in England were affected, dropping slightly to 22.4 per cent in 2024.
The British Dental Association (BDA) said there has been "no progress" on the rollout of Labour manifesto pledges to "fix the failed contract fuelling the crisis in NHS dentistry" or to deliver prevention programmes in schools.
Chairman Eddie Crouch, said: "This oral health gap was made in Westminster, with children paying the price for official failure to take dentistry seriously.
"A new Government calls this 'Dickensian', but it will take deeds not words to turn this around."
Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Helen Morgan said: "The Labour government's promised 700,000 additional dental appointments have so far proven as real as the Loch Ness monster.
"To see your child in pain is one of the worst feelings a parent can go through.
"But to think that so much of this suffering could be prevented if the scourge of dental deserts was ended makes it all the more infuriating that we are still in this situation.
"It is time ministers woke up, gripped this crisis and prevented more unnecessary suffering."
The Royal College of Surgeons said, in 2022/23, some 47,581 children required tooth extractions in NHS hospitals, with 66 per cent (31,165 cases) directly attributed to decay.
This is the equivalent of 120 hospital operations every working day, it said.
Dr Charlotte Eckhardt, dean of the faculty of dental surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, said: "We've seen a slight improvement overall in the number of five-year-olds with tooth decay, but it is still too high.
"The fact that more than one in five children still suffer from an entirely preventable condition is concerning.
"Supervised toothbrushing programmes (STPs), which the Government has said it will implement, offer a glimmer of hope, but their roll-out is uneven across the country.
"STPs have proven to reduce dental decay within a single year after children have been enrolled."
