Middlesbrough dental decay 'significantly' higher than average

A town has significantly more dental decay than the national average, according to a council report.

Middlesbrough Council's director of public health said 27.9% of adults in the town suffered more oral health impacts, compared to 17.7% in England.

The town also has the highest level of decay in five-year-olds' teeth in the North East, with links to deprivation.

North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board said a recovery plan was being developed.

Mark Adams, Middlesbrough Council's director of public health, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service access to dentists had not gone back to "pre-pandemic" levels.

Mr Adams said that in 2020 just below 68% of children under 17 in Middlesbrough were accessing dental care. In 2022, it was 48.5% for children and just under 40% for adults.

"There's a doubling of decay from three to five-year-olds in Middlesbrough," he said.

"It's twice as bad in five-year-olds. Part of that is explained by the dental disease process."

Councillors in Middlesbrough have spoken of their worries about a "crisis" and a "horrific picture" in dentistry.

Councillor Jack Banks, chair of the council's health scrutiny panel, said: "The level of deprivation is phenomenal and the percentages are so behind. It's just disappointing for all of us that are residents of Middlesbrough to have another statistic where it just paints a horrific picture."

Labour group leader Matt Storey blamed cuts in health budgets, saying discussions were often about inexpensive preventative measures because of lack of resources.

"The best preventative measure is to have everybody registered with a dentist and able to attend a dentist," he said.

"The reason we don't have that is 13 years of austerity."

Mr Storey added: "Middlesbrough will continue to be at the wrong end of those graphs as long as we don't have significant investment in our health service."

But Conservative councillor David Coupe said the problem had started earlier.

"I couldn't find a dentist 15 years ago in Middlesbrough," he said.

"I don't disagree with what councillor Storey says but I will point out the problem started before that.

"I had to go outside the area, which is appalling. It's a major problem."

Craig Blair, local director at the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, said dental services had struggled to recover from coronavirus nationally.

He said a recovery plan was being developed to respond to the pressures and improve oral health across Teesside.

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