Dental Services: Children
Question
Rachael Maskell
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of schools collecting data on whether children and young people are seeing an NHS dentist.
Answer
Neil O'BrienNo specific assessment has been made. NHS Digital publishes Dental Statistics for England which includes information on the number of adults and children seen by a dentist, and is available from the following link:
Official guidance states that adults with good oral healthcare should be seen by a dentist once every 24 months and that children should be seen by a dentist once every 12 months. Therefore, the data is published in this format, so that the number of adults regularly visiting their dentist can be shown.