BELFAST, UK: Recent statistics from the Health and Social Care Board have revealed that children in Northern Ireland are three times more likely to have had primary teeth removed than children in England, pointing to possible oral health inequalities in the UK. In promising news, however, a report on health funding has recommended that a new oral health strategy should be developed for Northern Ireland in collaboration with dental professionals.
Health Funding in Northern Ireland was published earlier this month by the Northern Ireland (NI) Affairs Committee, a cross-party committee appointed by the UK Parliament’s House of Commons. The report refers repeatedly to the poor oral health outcomes faced by the country’s population, outlining how, in the most recent Children’s Dental Health Survey, 19% of children aged 5 showed signs of severe or extensive dental caries.
The report criticised the current oral health strategy in Northern Ireland, stating that it “does not contain any up-to-date targets for optimising services and improving outcomes”. It then suggested that a “fresh direction and impetus are needed to improve Northern Ireland’s oral health”. The report continued: “This will not be achieved with a piecemeal approach, but requires an overarching, evidence-based strategy with associated targets to work towards.” This oral health strategy, according to the committee, should be ready in draft form by early 2021.
“We very much welcome the focus this NI Affairs Committee report rightly places on oral health in Northern Ireland, in particular where significant gaps and challenges remain,” said Dr Caroline Lappin, interim Chair of the British Dental Association’s NI Council.
“As what is effectively the only democratic scrutiny committee overseeing health policy in Northern Ireland at present, it makes the remarks all the more significant. We clearly welcome the committee’s unequivocal recommendation, and the logic underpinning this, as to why a new oral health strategy for Northern Ireland, to be developed in collaboration with the dental profession, is necessary,” Lappin continued.
Tags:
BELFAST, UK: Health and dental care worth £44 million were lost to cross-country fraud last year, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland has ...
BELFAST, UK: Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, dental services worldwide have been disrupted for over a year. A recent report by the Health and Social Care ...
CARDIFF, UK: Thanks to improved healthcare and living conditions, and a range of other factors, life expectancy in the UK has been increasing steadily in ...
LONDON, UK: A new report from the Health and Social Care Committee deems NHS dentistry “totally unacceptable in the 21st century”. The cross-party ...
EDINBURGH, Scotland: Oral health in Scotland’s child population is generally improving, but the British Dental Association (BDA) Scotland has recently ...
LONDON, UK: More than one-third of UK practice owners report that private revenue is higher now than it was before the pandemic, according to an insider ...
LONDON, UK: Despite being largely preventable, poor dental health continues to be a major public health issue in England. This is evident in a recent report...
EDINBURGH, UK: The gap in dental caries rates between children living in the least and most deprived areas of Scotland is growing, according to the National...
BELFAST, UK: The SARS-CoV-2 virus has not only brought with it the fear of infection, but has also caused great pain to dental patients who have had limited...
BELFAST, Northern Ireland: Authorities in Northern Ireland have officially confirmed that they will extend their human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination ...
Live webinar
Fri. 19 July 2024
1:00 am UTC (London)
Live webinar
Tue. 6 August 2024
11:00 pm UTC (London)
Live webinar
Wed. 14 August 2024
12:00 am UTC (London)
Live webinar
Wed. 21 August 2024
2:00 pm UTC (London)
Dr. Jim Lai DMD, MSc(Perio), EdD, FRCD(C)
Live webinar
Thu. 29 August 2024
1:00 am UTC (London)
Live webinar
Mon. 2 September 2024
10:00 am UTC (London)
Live webinar
Tue. 3 September 2024
4:00 pm UTC (London)
To post a reply please login or register