Thousands of children missing out on NHS dental care in Scotland
Nearly 9% of children have not seen a dentist in the last 5 years
Nearly 9% of children registered with an NHS dentist have not had a check up in the last five years, according to figures obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
Numbers given to the party show over 78,000 children and young people have not attended a dental appointment in that time frame, and nearly 21,000 have not been seen within ten years.
Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "While the SNP continue serving up their great dentistry distortion, children and young people are struggling to access the toothcare they need.
"It's vital that we support good oral health from a young age, enable problems to be caught early and ensure the healthy development of mouth and teeth.”
The Scottish Government have highlighted that 95% of the population is registered to an NHS dentist, and insisted dental services are recovering following the pandemic.
Nearly 21,000 children have not received a check up in the last ten years
A spokesperson for Holyrood said: “Last year more than 660,000 child examinations were provided by NHS dentists.
"We have also increased funding to child dental services by introducing, for the first time, an enhanced examination fee from February 1 2022.”
The Lib Dems however are accusing the SNP of hiding behind a misrepresentative statistic, saying they are stalling on action and failing children.
Alex Cole-Hamilton added: “It's vital that we support good oral health from a young age, enable problems to be caught early and ensure the healthy development of mouth and teeth.”
The Scottish Government spokesperson continued: “despite the pandemic, the National Dental Inspection Programme showed that 73% of primary 1 children had no obvious tooth decay in 2021/22 compared with only 45% in 2002/2003."