Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that prevention is central to NHS dental care.

Prevention is crucial to the work of the health and social care system, including in dentistry, and everyone has a role to play. The Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (OHID) has published an evidence-based toolkit, ‘Delivering Better Oral Health - an evidence-based toolkit for prevention’, for dental practice teams to support preventive advice and treatment for their patients available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/delivering-better-oral-health-an-evidence-based-toolkit-for-prevention

Water fluoridation is a safe public health intervention to improve the oral health of both adults and children and helps to tackle inequalities. The Health and Care Act will make it simpler to expand water fluoridation schemes across England. We announced funding to begin expansion, subject to consultation, across the North-East of England.

We know that good oral health in the early stages of childhood is likely to lead to better long-term dental health. There is good evidence for the effectiveness of daily supervised toothbrushing programmes in schools and early year settings, particularly in deprived areas. Such schemes can be commissioned by local authorities or the National Health Service and exist across the country.

Following the implementation of ‘Our plan for patients’, we are planning to announce additional reforms of the NHS Dental System shortly.