High child tooth decay rate tackled

Measures will include better dental health education

Dental experts have announced plans to tackle the high rate of tooth decay among children on Wearside.

Figures show in some parts of Sunderland, five-year-olds need twice as much treatment as the national average for the age group.

Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust has now drawn up its Oral Health Strategy to combat poor dental health across the city's population.

New measures will include better education on oral health, getting more people registered with dentists and recruiting more specialists.

There will also be specific targets to reduce problems affecting young children.

Help for families

Pat Kilker is a dentist in Easington Lane and is chairman of the Oral Health Advisory Group.

He said the problems were caused by a poor, high sugar diet which he said was linked to social deprivation, like many other health problems.

He said: "We have to remember dietary habits are established at an early age in children and high sugar diets cause tooth decay.

"I think that is probably an historical factor in Sunderland, as in many other places, we have got high sugar diets.

"The problem we have got in Sunderland is oral health in children is a good indicator of oral health in the population in general. The best predictor of future disease is past experience of the disease.

"So if we are seeing high sugar diets in children at them moment, we are pretty much guaranteed that it will carry through to adults."

He said the strategy would be looking at a range of areas as well as tooth decay including ways to help families reduce sugar content and education.

They will also work with voluntary organisations and health visitors, to make sure oral health is high on their agendas.