Good oral health is essential for our wellbeing

TAKING good care of your teeth, gums and mouth is really important for our health.

Poor oral health can be a sign of other health issues which need to be addressed.

For example, gum disease can impact on the health of people with diabetes.

That’s one reason why improving NHS dental services and people’s access to them is a priority for the Welsh Government.

Earlier this month I announced 10,000 new NHS dental places for parts of Wales where it can be difficult to see an NHS dentists – part of a £1.3m investment in dental services.

Around £450,000 will go to Cardiff and Vale UHB and £300,000 to Aneurin Bevan UHB to provide new NHS dentistry places.

We know that some health boards don’t currently spend all their allocated funding for dentistry; it’s important that they do this as there are needs right across the country.

Looking after teeth needs to start as soon as they appear in a baby’s mouth. We know that tooth decay starts early and in some parts of Wales one in four three year olds have decayed teeth. Too many young children in Wales have to teeth taken out under a general anaesthetic.

Our Designed to Smile programme, which encourages twice-daily brushing with fluoride toothpaste, started in 2008 and since then levels of tooth decay have come down. Brushing teeth and gums twice a day with fluoride toothpaste is important for everyone, no matter what age.

Its particularly important for older people with their own teeth to make sure this is happening every day. Cutting down the amount of sugar we eat and drink will also help to prevent tooth decay, and it’s just as important to cut down on how often we have sugar.

The revamped Designed to Smile programme will see more help for babies and very young children and their parents.

I fully support tooth brushing from an early age – good habits started in childhood can last a lifetime. We are also investing in specialist children’s dentistry services. This will see new specialists working with our Community and Hospital services. This will increase access to specialist children’s dental services closer to people’s homes and ensure treatment for children with the highest treatment need.

The new specialists will work closely with general dental practice teams to improve children’s preventive care and treatment in NHS dental practices in Wales.

It’s expected up to 3,000 extra patients per year will have specialist children’s dentistry in dental practice which will reduce demand on our hospital-based services.

I want everyone in Wales to have good teeth and a healthy mouth.

We can always do more but we are making good progress in this area – surely something to smile about.

Vaughan Gething is the Welsh Health Secretary