A new poll, conducted by the British Dental Health Foundation, has found that almost four million under 14’s in the UK are at serious risk of developing oral health problems, due to poor tooth brushing supervision.
They found that 37% of parents admitted to stopping supervising their children’s tooth brushing before 7 years old.
It is advised by the NHS to continue supervising children when brushing their teeth until at least seven years old, to ensure they’re doing it for two minutes and in the correct way.
The British Dental Health Foundation have found that this lack of supervision could be one of the contributing factors in the current children’s dental health crisis in the UK.
Dr Nigel Carter OBE, Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, said:
“We are in the midst of a children’s dental health epidemic in the UK. New statistics revealed more than 33,000 children were admitted to hospital for tooth extractions under general anaesthetic in the last year. This is a truly inexcusable amount in the modern day.
“Children are simply not being given the opportunity to learn and develop the basic oral health skills and routines from they need from an early age, potentially setting them up for a lifetime of poor oral health.”