Bid to end check-up dental fee

JEREMY Corbyn will bring back free dental check ups – 68 years after they were abolished.

The charge was introduced in 1951 to help pay for the Korean War. It now stands at £22.70.

And it means one in five adults do not visit a dentist. Scrapping it will cost £450million a year but focusing on prevention will ultimately save money.

The plan is on top of the £26billion Mr Corbyn has pledged to the NHS. He said: “More than half of adults and 40 per cent of children haven’t been to the dentist in the last year. Over 100,000 are admitted to hospital every year because of teeth problems.

“This is the first step towards making all dentistry services free of charge – part of our ambition to deliver free dentistry as part of a truly universally free health service.”

British Dental Association chairman Mick Armstrong welcomed the move, saying: “Dentists are health professionals, not tax collectors. These charges discourage attendance and have become a substitute for adequate state investment.”

More than 100 children a day have rotting teeth removed in hospital. Nine out of ten of those cases could have been prevented by earlier treatment. Charity mobile dental clinics, more familiar in developing countries, are now seen in English towns to give emergency dental care for those unable to afford to go elsewhere.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “It’s time we put prevention at the heart of our approach to dental health.” Check-ups cost £14.30 in Wales and have been free in Scotland since 2006. Two-thirds of Scots now see a dentist every two years compared with only half of those south of the border.

Cuts in the dentistry budget since the Tories came to power in 2010 have been linked to dentists leaving the NHS in droves.