"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.

@MissyB1

1 part per million is the recommended amount in UK so you're all good in Severn Trent supply areas

From the NHS website

Millions of people in England receive fluoridated water. This means fluoride has been added to bring it up to around 1mg of fluoride per litre of water, which is a level found to reduce tooth decay levels.

1ppm is the usual amount recommended to help prevent dental decay.

I teach and have seen some children have ALL their teeth removed by Reception because they were that rotten. Believe me, some kids do not have a toothbrush.

The youngest child I've seen to have all their teeth out was 18 months old. Ribena in a bottle.

These stories are so deplorable . What are people doing to their dc it’s awful

Meant to say depressing there..

This. In Canada we buy a combo children's toothpaste and toothbrush for roughly $5 at the dollar store and it lasts for 4-6 months brushing twice a day.

So as long as you are not squeezing huge globs out it really lasts a very long time and there's not much excuse to not brush your child's teeth.

When we are done we let our 2 yo "brush" her own teeth though she's obviously not that thorough but the point is to get her to try.

We've also started gently introducing her to flossing. This one is a bit tricky. But she sees mommy flossing and wants to do it to do we aren't going to say no to that! We just do a few front teeth at a time. We figure we will start working on the back teeth once she's a bit more coordinated and it's easier to do it without risking hurting her gums.

We get those huge $2 bags of floss picks. They last seemingly forever! I would say 2-3 months.

They're cool as well

NHS dentists are so hard to find- ours has just gone private so rather than try and find another one we've gone private for the first time. They charge £15 for a child's check up if the parent goes too. Plus then obviously any treatments needed etc. So I won't get much change from £150 each visit for our family of four, even if none of us need any work.

When I was at primary school in the 1980s we had the school dentist in once a year to check our teeth and refer on any issues to an nhs dental clinic. I remember thinking it was pointless as my mum took me twice a year anyway, but then friends told me their parents never took them to the dentist.

I really think we need to start the dental checks at school again given how difficult it is to get an nhs dentist now. Then each year the children could be re taught how to brush-children love using those disclosing tablets. Yes, parents should be teaching their children to do this but not all will.

I really wish all areas had fluoride in the water. I actually have white spots on my teeth from a bit too much fluoride as a child, but I don't really care as my teeth are strong. Now I live in an area without fluoride so I make sure my children spit but don't rinse after brushing so the fluoride from the toothpaste stays on their teeth.

I remember getting those disclosing tablets from school as a kid. It really helped to teach just how much you had to brush them.

That is terrible! I am so sorry that happened to you.

Nobody’s six-year-old child gets to that age having never had their teeth brushed because their parents didn’t have the money for a toothbrush and toothpaste. A toothbrush is something you only need to buy maybe twice a year, at a cost of less than a pound a pop. I don’t believe any half decent parent would let their child’s teeth rot rather than, at a desperate push, get into £2 of rent arrears a year

It's easy to spot a poster with no experience of extreme poverty.

If someone has £20 for their weekly supermarket shop they aren't going to use 1/20th of it on a toothbrush. That will mean someone going without a meal.

Toothbrushes can be hard to find for just £1, are supposed to be replaced every 3 months and toothpaste is more on top.

It's going to be c £20 pa per dc.

That's a week's food.

Nah. Nothing to do with poverty. They could save up 5p a week and be able to buy a 50p toothbrush within a couple of months. It’s neglect.

@Aphrathestorm , you can buy 2 toothbrushes for 25p in Tesco, and probably other places too.

You must have a poor memory. My dentist went private around 2004 (when Blair/Brown were in power) and we couldn't find an NHS dentist back then despite phoning around lots of them. The shortage of NHS dentists goes back a couple of decades, just like the problem with GPs which goes back a couple of decades - it must have been a problem in the early 00's because Blair said his new contract for them would "solve the GP crisis".

Nope. I snack a lot and have very poor eating habits (crisps, chocolate, cake etc between meals), but I also brush my teeth 3 times per day and floss. I've not needed a filling or extraction for 30 years, nor have I ever needed a scale & polish.

I never used to brush my teeth because my parents never told me to so it just wasn't "a thing" for me. I had terrible problems in my school years, with a very painful absess, a couple of extractions, and multiple fillings. When I left school and started work, my bad breath was mentioned by my boss (no one else had ever mentioned it, so I didn't know), so I suddenly took notice, started brushing, etc., and the rest is history - no dental problems ever since.

Sorry but yes . Fluoride helps and obviously tipped the balance in your case , but the majority of people in this country use fluoride toothpaste and in my area, and many others, the rates of decay after many years of falling are going up. At the same time the amount of sugar a day the average child eats is going up and the number of times a day they eat is going up. https://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/news/excessive-sugar-consumption-in-uk-toddlers-study-flags.html

Every time you take a bite or even a sip of something sugary it takes the acid an hour to stop attacking your teeth. Little sips of drink or small snacks through the day (grazing) will cause decay no matter how well you brush and floss.

Moreover the time of day also matters, if you eat or drink something sugary just before bed , even if you brush your teeth straight after, that acid is still attacking your teeth overnight because the saliva that neutralises the acid is less at night.

There have been many studies on tooth brushing diet and dental decay . This paragraph from one study , I think, encapsulates what we know , well.

This study has shown that toothbrushing can only in part reduce the impact of sugar consumption and snacking on dental decay outcomes in children under 5. Huge progress has been made around improving oral hygiene in the UK population, however, the same progress has not been seen in terms of sugar intake. Diets low in sugar, and particularly reduced sugar-snacking, must continue to be promoted to reduce dental decay in children.

Snacking makes an enormous impact. And snacking has increased enormously.

Appreciate all the info in your posts

Who are “they” who ought to be doing something? Do you mean the Government? If so, you’re not wrong. The lack of NHS dental provision is shocking.

However, ”We” are not failing our children. Individual parents are. There’s no excuse for not cleaning children’s teeth.

But some parents neglect their kids teeth. That will not change. It is why dentists used to visit schools, it was much more pro active in the past.

We can't just say well its parents responsibilities so fuck those kids. We have to still try and make sure those kids get what they need.

And yes kids and adults need access to NHS dentists which is currently not happening.

We went through a period of only obtaining our food from the food bank for a few months because of job loss because of covid. We still made it work. If I have to starve for a few days or even a couple of weeks so my child can have healthy teeth in the long run than so be it. It IS wilful neglect not to brush your child's teeth. My mother's mother did not brush her teeth and she suffered greatly for it but just physically but also socially. You are selfish if you cannot see how it is important.

Yes it is ideal to change it out more often than twice a year but you are extremely stupid and have your priorities in the wrong place if you throw the toothbrush away knowing you are going to have trouble replacing it. Most of these toothbrushes can be sanitized by boiling them.

@Lollygaggle
Your posts on this thread are spot on
Well done, you obviously know delivering better oral health toolkit inside out.

Toothbrushes can be hard to find for just £1, are supposed to be replaced every 3 months and toothpaste is more on top. It's going to be c £20 pa per dc.
More like £5. A pack of 4 kids toothbrushes is £1. I don't know how long a tube of toothpaste lasts but say 4 tubes of children's toothpaste s year at £1 each. Total £5.