Blackpool Council Annual Health Report 2019 Blackpool Council Annual Health Report PAGES | Page 30

ORAL HEALTH
Good oral health is integral to a child’s general health and wellbeing. Oral health affects
how children grow, enjoy life, look, speak, chew, taste food and socialise, as well as their
feelings of social wellbeing. Poor oral health and associated pain and disease can lead
to difficulties in eating, sleeping, concentrating and socialising, thereby affecting health-
related quality of life with individual, family and societal consequences (school absence,
time off work and financial impacts to the individual and society). Tooth decay is the most
common chronic disease in childhood even though it is largely preventable.
Often dental treatment for young children (such as extractions of decayed teeth) may only
be done under general anaesthetic, which is both distressing for the families concerned
and carries a financial burden. Tooth decay accounts for high numbers of child general
anaesthetics and for children aged between five and nine years across England, it is the
most common reason for hospital admission.
Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease in childhood even though it is largely
preventable and is the top cause for hospital admission across England for children aged
five to nine years.
Between 2014/2015 and 2016/2017 Blackpool’s child dental health has improved
significantly with the average number of decayed, missing or filled-teeth (DMFT) per
five-year-old child reducing from 1.83 to 0.96, and the proportion of five year olds with
no decay increasing from 57.5% to 75.1%. Tooth extractions due to decay for children
admitted as inpatients to hospital, aged ten years and under had been increasing in the
town, but since 2014 have had an overall downward trajectory, indicating that we have
made some progress in improving our children’s dental health.
EXTRACTIONS DUE TO DECAY FOR CHILDREN ADMITTED AS
INPATIENTS TO HOSPITAL, AGED 10 YEARS AND UNDER
2,500.00
2,000.00
1,500.00
Blackpool
1,000.00
North West
550.00
0
30
England
2011/12
2013/14
2015/16
2017/18