No shortage of dentist appointments in Walsall as one in four children suffer from tooth decay
The number of children in Walsall who have experienced tooth decay is above average compared to the rest of England. The newly appointed director for public health, Nadia Inglis, said 24.8 percent of five-year-olds experienced decay in 2022.
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The statistics were heard at the council’s latest social care and health scrutiny committee meeting. Pip Mayo, from the NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board, said there was no shortage of dentists appointments available across Walsall.
She said: “What we can see from the figures is that the use of dentistry is lower post-pandemic than it was pre-pandemic. There are no hard and fast targets about how many dental appointments people should go to each year. But we know utilisation of dentistry among adults is lower this side than before.
“We also know we have sufficient dentistry capacity across Walsall for everybody to access dentistry services. The next piece of work is what are the reasons people aren’t using that.”
The report delivered to committee members outlined the focus to recover dentistry services post-covid to pre-covid levels. The latest available data set from December 2024 shows the situation steadily improving but a gap still exists with fewer patients being seen now than they were before covid.
It was noted that there were health inequalities across Walsall, and the strong link between poor oral health and general health. An audit is underway to review equity within dental services across the borough. The review will compare levels of dentistry access, deprivation, and children with decayed, missing and filled teeth, in order to ensure a fairer distribution of dental services in Walsall.
Councillor Aftab Nawaz said: “It’s important to look at that equity audit when it comes out for us to judge, as well as the professionals, to know if we’re doing enough in these areas. Traditional deprived communities have suffered badly with oral health for many reasons and it’s not just one. But what we need to ensure is that work is in the right areas. People grow up so quickly, it’s important we keep an eye on this.”
