More than three in five children have not seen an NHS dentist in the past year in parts of England, researchers have found.
In Brighton and Hove, the figure is more than one in three, or about 16,000 children, while across the rest of Sussex the proportion stood at more than two in five or more than 160,000 children.
House of Commons Library research, which the Liberal Democrats published at their autumn conference in Brighton, showed that more than 5.3 million children are thought not to have seen an NHS dentist in the past year.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said that the figures highlighted a “scandal” and called for an emergency dental registration scheme for children.
According to the numbers, more than half of children had not seen a dentist across 33 local authority areas including in 13 London boroughs.
In Herefordshire, almost 21,000 children were identified as not having seen a dentist in the past year, out of an estimated cohort of just over 34,000 (61.6 per cent). The figures rose to 33,834 out of 54,352 (62.2 per cent) in Hackney, in London.
In Brighton and Hove, more than a third of children – 36.5 per cent – did not see a dentist in the past year. With almost 45,000 under-16s in the area, this equated to more than 16,000 children.
The figures were higher in neighbouring areas. In West Sussex, the figure was 43.8 per cent. And in East Sussex, it was 44.6 per cent – down from almost two thirds (64.7 per cent) during the coronavirus pandemic
Ms Cooper said: “It’s a scandal that, across the country, millions of children are going without basic dental care.
“The previous Conservative government mismanaged NHS dentistry so badly that they presided over under-spends in the dentistry budget while children’s teeth were left to rot.
“This appalling situation cannot go on. We Liberal Democrats are calling for an emergency registration scheme so that children who are eligible for free check-ups can actually access them and for reform of the broken dental contract to bring more dentists back to the NHS and end the scandal of dental deserts.
“The new government cannot waste any time in gripping this emergency and rescuing NHS dentistry to ensure our children get the care they deserve.”
According to the NHS, patients with good oral health will “probably need to attend only once every 12 to 24 months but those with more problems will need check-ups more often”.
