Thousands of children were admitted to hospital with tooth decay last year amid a surge in exports.
New figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Inequalities (OHID) show that 47,581 teeth were extracted in NHS hospitals in England for patients aged 0 to 19.
Around 66% of exports – or 31,165 – were for the primary diagnosis of tooth decay, a 17% increase on the previous 12 months.
The number is equivalent to 236 per 100,000 people in the age group.
OHID said this “is likely to reflect the ongoing recovery of hospital services following the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Hospital admissions for childhood tooth extractions cost NHS hospitals £64.3 million last year, with tooth decay-related extractions costing £40.7 million.
Tooth decay remains the most common cause of admission to hospital for young people aged five to nine.
The data also showed regional disparities in stunting-related exports, with Yorkshire and the Humber reporting 405 cases per 100,000 children – the highest rate – and the East Midlands 80 per 100,000 – the lowest.
David Fothergill, chair of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “These stark figures reveal that a lack of access to affordable dentistry is having a worrying impact on the state of children’s teeth.
“The fact that, due to the severity of tooth decay, an average of 119 operations are carried out each day to remove decaying teeth in children and teenagers is worrying and also adds to the current pressures on our health service.
“Untreated dental care remains one of the most prevalent diseases affecting children and young people’s ability to speak, eat, play and socialize.”
The release of the figures comes after the government unveiled its £200m plan to boost NHS dentistry in England.
The proposals include a £20,000 bonus for dentists working in underserved communities in a bid to increase appointment capacity by 2.5 million next year.
Mobile dental teams will also be deployed to schools in underserved areas to give 165,000 children preventive treatments with fluoride varnish to strengthen their teeth and prevent tooth decay.
But Eddie Crouch, chairman of the British Dental Association (BDA), warned that “the oral health gap is widening for our youngest patients and it won’t stop with another consultation”.
“Ministers are trying to turn supervised brushing into a political football,” he said. “They need to grow and double down on proven programs.
“This means real commitment and ambition, fully funded. So, exactly the opposite of the plans we saw this week.”
In Bristol earlier this week, hundreds of people queued outside a dental practice after it opened its books to NHS patients.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said: “We know that too many, particularly those living in rural or coastal communities, are still struggling to get an appointment.”
He added: “This recovery plan will fix this by making NHS dental care faster, simpler and fairer for patients and staff.”
However, Ms Atkins refused to say whether the dental plan is funded by the underemployment in the NHS dental budget.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the package a “very important new investment”.
He told broadcasters on Thursday that “it will make a significant difference and quickly”.
Other measures included in the recovery plan include dentists being paid more for NHS work, a ‘Smile for Life’ advice scheme aimed at new parents and the deployment of so-called ‘dental vans’ in rural and coastal communities.
Officials also revealed more details of the biggest expansion of water fluoridation in England since the 1980s, which will aim to reduce the number of tooth extractions due to tooth decay, particularly in deprived areas.
Subject to consultation, the scheme will first be rolled out across the North East – Northumberland, County Durham, Sunderland, South Tyneside and Teesside, including Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington and Middlesbrough.
This will result in an additional 1.6 million people having fluoride added to their water – a naturally occurring mineral found in water and some foods.
The amount of natural fluoride in water varies across the country, and in the early 20th century, researchers found that people had less tooth decay in areas with higher levels of fluoride in the drinking water.
Schemes in the UK involving the addition of fluoride to water date back to the 1960s, starting in the Midlands.
Around 10% of people in England currently have fluoride added to their drinking water – mainly in the West Midlands and the North East, including Newcastle and Gateshead.
The NHS dental rehabilitation plan states: “Our long-term ambition is to systematically bring fluoridation to more of the country, with a particular focus on the most deprived areas, which benefit most from fluoridation.”
England’s interim chief dental officer, Jason Wong, wrote in the foreword to the document: “The consultation on expanding water fluoridation in parts of England is an opportunity to improve the oral health of communities for generations to come.”
