Children’s Oral Health

Debate between Catherine West and Caroline Johnson

Tuesday 31st October 2017 Westminster Hall

[Dr Caroline Johnson (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) on securing a debate to highlight this important issue.

We cannot overstate the fact that, as the hon. Gentleman said, oral health problems are the most common cause of admission to hospital for children aged five to nine. I am a children’s doctor—a consultant paediatrician—and I am responsible for the children on the children’s ward in Peterborough City Hospital. They often come in not because they are unwell but because they have had too much sugar and have not had their teeth brushed effectively; their teeth have become rotten, painful and uncomfortable and need to be removed.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) said, behind the statistics there are children who are in pain and discomfort, and whose teeth are hurting. They may not want to eat—children who have tooth decay are lighter. There are other reasons for that, but in part it is because they do not want to eat because it hurts when they do. They cannot sleep, which affects their educational performance. As they get older, they do not want to smile because of the embarrassment and discomfort it causes, and that has an impact on their ability to socialise with other children. Perhaps most worryingly, more than 8,000 pre-school children are admitted to hospital each year to have teeth removed. Those children are not responsible for brushing their teeth and do not choose what they eat. Their parents or permanent care-givers are entirely responsible for all aspects of their dental health.

There are two ways to tackle this problem. First, we should address the issue of sugar. I welcome the Government’s proposed sugar tax, because it will encourage children to drink water, which in many areas is fluorinated and better for teeth, rather than sugary fizzy pop, which, as well as containing high levels of sugar, is strongly acidic and therefore detrimental for teeth. It would help if the tax were directed towards sugary drinks, and not spread out across the different drinks that the manufacturer makes.

Secondly, schools should educate children about what to eat. Last week, I went to Washingborough Academy in my constituency, which has an innovative programme for improving school meals for its primary school children. It has a vegetable patch and a fruit orchard in the school playing field, where the children grow their own food and learn about where their food comes from.

[Catherine West]

The hon. Lady is making some excellent points. When I was a council leader, I introduced free school meals for all children up to the age of 11 in all of our primary schools. That increased the take-up of free school meals to 90% across the borough and improved oral health.

[Dr Johnson]

That is an interesting point. The hon. Lady is right that it is important that our children’s school meals are high quality and as healthy as possible.

There are other issues relating to the mechanism by which children consume food. In my profession, I have seen pre-school children given Coca-Cola to drink not in a cup but in a sippy cup or even in a baby bottle with a teat. That is particularly harmful for children, and there should be more education about the fact that it damages teeth. Once children get past 12 months, they should be encouraged to move from bottles and sippy cups on to proper open cups, so that sugary drinks are in contact with their teeth for a shorter period.

If the child is of pre-school age and the parents do not take them to a dentist for whatever reason, health visitors can provide some of this education. It should be part of a health visitor’s role to encourage good oral hygiene in children.

I do not whether I am ageing myself here, but I remember being given disclosing tablets at school and rushing off into the school lavatories to brush my teeth to see what the horrible blue dye had done to the inside of my mouth. I was horrified because, although I thought I had done a great job of brushing my teeth, there was quite a lot of blue staining. That powerful tool should be available to all of our children. My children have recently come home with toothbrushes, toothpaste and some of those lovely tablets. Hopefully, they will have a good effect.

In my reading for this debate, I came across some research in health journals that suggests that the strep mutans and streptococcus sobrinus bacteria increase children’s likelihood of getting tooth decay. In families in which the diet and the amount of sugar consumed is the same and the amount of tooth-brushing is similar, some children get more tooth decay than others. Research suggests that that is due to those bacteria, so we should aim to reduce their presence in the mouth. I will be interested to hear the Minister’s thoughts on that point.

I am pleased that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak secured this debate. I congratulate him on raising this issue.