Dental Services: South Basildon and East Thurrock
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of low NHS dental access in South Basildon and East Thurrock on levels of pressure on urgent care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The most common reason children aged five to nine years old are admitted to hospital is for tooth decay. We will work with local authorities and the NHS to introduce supervised tooth brushing for children aged between three and five years old in the most deprived communities. These programmes are proven to reduce tooth decay and to boost good practices at home.
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