Dentists told to dispense tips on alcohol and smoking

DENTISTS should give patients advice about healthy eating, cutting down on alcohol and giving up smoking, it has been suggested.

Think tanks said those sitting in the dentist’s chair were “perfectly placed” to absorb lifestyle tips.

Enrolling dentists in efforts to improve the health of the nation could result in reductions in obesity and diabetes, the report from the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation said. The analysis found drastic differences between the north and south of England when it came to good dental health, as well as a big divide between the rich and the poor.

The report found people from the most deprived backgrounds were twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for dental work in 2015 than those who were better off.

Prof John Appleby, report author and Nuffield director of research, said: “Our dental health is improving, but it is shocking that your income or where you live can still determine your dental health, how likely you are to be admitted to hospital with dental problems and how easily you can access the dental treatment you need.

“We know that poor oral health is linked to other health problems, like obesity, alcohol consumption and smoking. So it makes sense to involve dentists more in plans across the NHS to address these problems. But unless more efforts are made to tackle the inequalities we identify and embed prevention of ill health across dentistry, the progress made over the past few decades in improving the nation’s oral health could stall.”

Henrik Overgaard-nielsen, chairman of dental practice at the British Dental Association, said: “These divides between north and south, rich and poor, expose the myth of universal access to NHS dentistry. We have a discredited system that funds dental care for barely half the population and the patients that lose out are all too often the ones that need us most.

“The service can do more to address these shocking inequalities – what we’re missing is the political will. Tooth decay remains the number one reason for child hospital admissions.

“The Government must now show it’s willing to end this postcode lottery and put prevention first,” he said.

A separate study found half of adults regularly miss about one quarter of their teeth when they brush. Each week, more than a million patients in the UK use NHS dental services – many of them seeking treatment for dental disease, the consequences of which costs the NHS £3.4billion a year.

The study, commissioned by a consortium of dentists behind Brushlink – the first smartphone “tooth brushing tracker” that works with any toothbrush, found that 48 per cent admit that they “orphan” a quarter of their teeth by consistently missing them.