Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of tooth decay among children in the latest period for which figures are available.

Public Health England coordinates the National Dental Epidemiology Programme (NDEP) that assesses the oral health of children including tooth decay.

Trend data for five-year-old children, from four surveys, available between the years 2008-2017, reveal a clear trend of statistically significant improvement in prevalence of decay levels. The proportion of children in England with experience of obvious decay decreased from 30.9% in 2008 to 23.3% in 2017. These results can be viewed at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/768368/NDEP_for_England_OH_Survey_5yr_2017_Report.pdf

Oral health data from NDEP for 12-year olds (in 2009) and three-year olds (in 2013) are available but no trend data are available. Results from the NDEP surveys can be viewed at the following links: 12-year-old data:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oral-health-survey-of-12-year-old-children-2009

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oral-health-survey-of-3-year-old-children-2013

The 2013 children’s’ decennial dental health survey found that tooth decay in permanent teeth was 44% for 15-year-olds and 32% for 12-year-olds in England. This is a statistically significant reduction from the 2003 figures of 55% and 41% respectively. The Child Dental Health Survey 2013 can be viewed at the following link:

https://files.digital.nhs.uk/publicationimport/pub17xxx/pub17137/cdhs2013-england-report.pdf