"Some six year olds have never seen a toothbrush"

[SuperGinger]

Just saw an article on the BBC website about this, very sad you need your teeth for the rest of your life and we are failing our children.

Why aren't they investing in children we are storing up so many problems for the future? Especially with poor diets many children have.

I’ve not quite got to primary school yet with my 4 y/o , but I’ve not seen this? I’m in N Wales. Are you in a deprived area? Pretty sure flying start was/is for deprived areas. My nephew used to get sent home with toothbrush/paste every now and then pre covid, but haven’t had anything for years (he’s 7 now).

I’ve only been given free toothbrushes by the community dental nurse during a group session arranged by the health visitor but that was when he was about 18 months old.

I do pay for private nursery still though as it was too much hassle to arrange for him to to the school nursery (it’s only a couple of hours in the morning or afternoon) as I work full time. Maybe it will change when he starts full time school in September.

I must say though that the NHS dentists are like rocking horse shit. I put him on the waiting list and 3 years later we are still waiting. I’ve gone private and he can see the dentist with me for the moment. Think there’s an age limit to that though so will probably have to pay privately for him as well. Must be really difficult formthose on low incomes with no access to an NHS dentist, but that’s still no excuse for not regularly brushing your childs teeth!

This is heart breaking.
I cannot get my head around it. DS is three he comes to the dentist when I go for my check up and they look at his teeth (mainly to get him used to it apparently)
the other day we missed his morning brushing because we were in such a rush and I beat myself up about it all day!
I know it’s not easy when they’re being resistant and some days he has a longer brush than others but I always make sure he brushes twice a day and am teaching him to brush himself - we do it together he copies me then I do the final brush.
I cannot comprehend parents not caring about this :(

From a young age I used to stand in the bathroom and pretend I was having a wash and brushing my teeth as I hated doing either. I don't think my parents were neglectful.

The vast majority of children wouldn't need any dental work if they brushed their teeth properly/regularly. Needing a dentist is usually a sign that their home dental hygiene is poor. My sister is a dental nurse (all her life since leaving school) and has some terrible stories of primary school kids needing almost all their teeth removed due to severe decay, and then a few years later as teenagers, having most of their adult teeth removed due to severe decay, all because of poor oral hygiene and down to poor parenting.

Cost isn't an excuse, they have boxes and boxes of freebies to hand out at the counter, including floss, toothbrushes and toothpaste. They actively give them to the parents of kids with poor teeth and encourage them to clean teeth regularly, but it's like leading a horse to water. They'd also never turn away a non patient who came in asking for freebies - the surgery don't pay for them, they're provided free by the manufacturers/reps in almost unlimited quantities.

They should have supervised and checked. I can tell by looking if my son has clean teeth or not.

It is depressing. How has it sunk so low for children. Just the basics from parents.

Access to dental care is hard. A friend who moved hear me had to have her kids on a waiting list for over a year to get an NHS dentist for them. One of them was in pain.

Same, I can also smell his breath! And if I ask him I can tell if he’s lying!

I have never heard of this.

I have terrible teeth. As a young teenager I totally stopped brushing my teeth due to depression. By the time I started again I had loads of cavities and needed some teeth removed.

Oh come on. The parents have done the hard work producing the child.
Remember “it takes a village”

What do we pay our taxes for?
😁😁

I thought the real problem was children not seeing a toothbrush. That’s solely on the parents irrespective of how bad dentistry is in many parts of the country.

But it’s all a tragedy and worth highlighting.

My DC, 6, only saw a dentist for the first time a few months ago due to being on several waiting lists for over 4 years! I felt like a neglectful parent as I couldn’t afford private, and go without dentistry myself. That said, I brush his teeth religiously twice a day, no fizzy drinks etc. The dentist was shocked at how clean his teeth were and said most kids have decay at his age. It’s a sad state of affairs. Both me and DHs parents neglected our dental health so I can only imagine people are doing what their parents did.

That sounds brilliant! I wish they did that in our schools. The dentist here have about a 5 year waiting list.

UK ranks 5th in the world for dental hygiene. It's behind a few other European countries like Denmark. It's overall quite good.

Could be better though and this article highlights this. Are you from one of the top 4 countries? I do wonder what UK could do to improve things apart from the obvious lack of NHS dentist problem

It's the job of parents to meet their children's basic needs, not schools.

My children do go to school in a deprived area, yes although the toothbrushes/ flouride varnish is across the whole county (we are south wales) and across the whole of primary school years, usually once a term. I've never seen a dentist give out free toothpaste and/ or toothbrushes here, it all seems to be schools. I think the reason its all schools here is so it doesn't differentiate children from their peers, flying start is also done by postcode rather than means testing here too.

I agree with this. More parents seem to expect schools to teach their children everything.

A friend of mine used to be a school governor of a village school in a very "naice" area and they had to amend the starting list of expectations because children weren't being taught anything before starting school.

The list included being able to go to toilet themselves (and specifically mentioned that children should not be in nappies) and knowing their own name.

I remember this exact story floating about in 1995! We were pulled into a special dental assembly and the local family dentist provided everyone with a new toothbrush and tube of toothpaste.

DS came home from school with a teeth brushing sand timer, toothbrush and toothpaste in his bag in 2019.

Now another article all over again.

I just think that some families don't care about teeth and it'll always happen. 🤷‍♀️ (doesn't make it acceptable but also, it isn't new!)

I guess the journos are looking for shock factor...

OK, parents are definitely able to buy toothbrush or toothpaste (I bought from Primark, 3 for £0.70).
BUT - who can afford private dentist these days? I'm trying to find NHS dentist more than a year for my son, honestly I visited/called every single practice in my area. I had to take a loan to see private one.

I probably cleaned them just enough to get away with not doing it a lot of the time.

You can buy a pack of 5 toothbrushes for 75p in Primark.
You can buy a tube of toothpaste for 50p in Tesco.

I was in a reception class once where the dentist visited and only one child had a toothbrush. And he was only allowed to use it once a day.

Perhaps dentists are too busy dealing with completely avoidable tooth decay, extractions, fillings, etc., that simple regular brushing could have avoided in most cases?

My GD shares her parents 50/50. 14 days a month her teeth don't get cleaned, I've tried and tried to get them to clean them for her, I've bought toothbrushes, toothpaste, timers and those blue teeth staining tablet things but to no avail, I've coaxed, cajoled, ranted, finally got angry and became the evil MIL. By the age of 3 my GD has needed 6 teeth removing under anaesthesia, she's 5 now but still waiting, neither of her parents have been back to to the dentist to ask how long this will be and her teeth are worse now. I use the same dentist but they cant discuss it with me. The last 2 times I've cleaned her teeth here she's spat out blood and chunks of teeth.

The poor child is in pain, she doesn't sleep as her teeth hurt, she will only eat soft food, overcooked veggies or pasta and bananas, she used to help herself to cherry tomatoes out of the fridge, now I have to airfry them first. I'm so cross for her. I extremely frustrated too, I'm told I'm not her parent and I'm to leave them to parent as they see fit, then as soon as MIL is mentioned I lose any voice I did have and it bloody sucks, There is literally nothing I can do but sit back and watch 😥