Hospital dental admissions rise in Cumbria
- Details
- Published: Thursday, 18 April 2013 13:35
- Written by News Editor
- Hits: 1288
The figures nationally show a 1.1 per cent reduction in dentistry admissions during that time. Eric Rooney, consultant in dental public health for Cumbria, said the rise in the county could be partly attributed to the drive to ensure as many people as possible have access to an NHS dentist. “Historically we have had a problem with access to dentists in Cumbria,” he said. “We have worked really hard to open up tens of thousands of new NHS places over the past few years. People who weren’t able to access dentists are now able to be seen, and many of those have problems with tooth decay.”
He added: “These figures are a combination of more people being seen, as well as more people just needing hospital treatment – and that applies to adults and children.” He said that while the figures are not broken down into adults and children, there are a number of children whose teeth are so bad they need treatment in hospital and this is often linked to deprivation. We do regular surveillance on children at five years old to identify children who have decay. Across Cumbria the proportion of children who have at least one tooth with decay varies from about 25 per cent in south Lakeland to about 40 per cent in the north and west of the county.”
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report