The number of children in England undergoing hospital extractions for decayed teeth has risen significantly, new figures reveal.
For the financial year ending 2025, NHS hospitals carried out 56,143 tooth extractions on children aged up to 19, an increase of 14 per cent on the previous year.
Of these, 33,976 were specifically due to caries, an increase of 11%.
This means that decay accounts for 60.5 per cent of all emissions in this age group, rising to 80 per cent for under-fours and 86.5 per cent for five- to nine-year-olds. Worryingly, tooth decay remains the leading cause of hospital admission in children aged five to nine.
While NHS data experts suggest rising figures from 2021 could reflect services recovering after the pandemic, the British Dental Association (BDA) insists greater efforts are needed to improve access to dental care.
Geographically, Yorkshire and the Humber recorded the highest rates of decay-related exports at 504 per 100,000 children under 19, in stark contrast to the lowest rates in the East Midlands at 73 per 100,000.
Children and young people living in the most deprived communities were more than three times more likely to have a tooth extracted due to tooth decay than those in more affluent areas, the data showed.
BDA chairman Eddie Crouch said: “These appalling statistics are a disgrace to governments past and present.
“Tooth decay cannot be undisputed as the number one reason children are admitted to hospital.
“Targeted prevention programs are now in place, but there is still little sign that the government is willing to rebuild access to care.
“Dentists can’t fix these problems in the first place if we don’t catch them.”
The British Society of Pediatric Dentistry (BSPD) said the NHS data is likely to represent the continued recovery of general anesthesia services after the pandemic and does not include community dental services.
Dr Oosh Devalia, president of the BSPD, said: “The BSPD urges policymakers to maintain a firm focus on the priorities we know will help turn children’s oral health around – such as supervised tooth brushing, community water fluoridation and early access to dental teams.”
He also said there was a “need to reduce under-16 sugar consumption and, crucially, to push for every child to have a ‘dental home’, with access to a dental check-up by their first birthday”.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England said the numbers equate to one young person needing an extraction for tooth decay, likely under general anaesthetic, every 15 minutes.
Dr Charlotte Eckhardt, from the college, said: “No child should be hospitalized for an almost entirely preventable disease.
“Tooth decay causes unnecessary pain, missed school days and avoidable hospital admissions at a higher rate in 2025 than last year. This direction of travel must be reversed.
“Evaluating the supervised toothbrushing system is a welcome step. It will give us a clearer picture of what is working and where further improvements are needed.
“If the government is to meet its target of transforming the NHS dental system by 2035, it must ensure that every child can see a dentist when they need it. Postcode should never dictate a child’s health.”
