Almost 3,000 children end up in A&E due to tooth decay as Lib Dems call for an end to “dental deserts”

EMBARGO: 00.01 Monday 14th April

• The number of those aged under 18 who have attended A&E due to tooth decay has risen by 18% since 2019 
• There were 16,100 attendances to A&Es last year due to tooth decay with some trusts seeing near 40-fold rises
• The Liberal Democrats said the figures were “a national scandal” and called for urgent reforms to NHS dental contract to end dental deserts

2,800 children attended A&E due to issues related to tooth decay last year, data uncovered by the Liberal Democrats has revealed, up a fifth on five years ago.

In total 16,100 patients attended A&E due to tooth decay last year, the data obtained through Freedom of Information requests shows. The research found that 2,784 under 18s attended A&E due to tooth decay, slightly down on the previous year but up 18% compared to 2019. 61 of the 141 NHS trusts provided data, meaning that the actual number across all trusts is likely to be far higher.

In some places the increases were much starker. Northumbria Healthcare Trust saw the largest rise in the number of A&E attendances due to tooth decay, going from 126 in 2019 to 177 in 2024. North West Anglia’s Trust saw a staggering 40-fold rise in all cases, going from just 6 in 2019 to 238 last year.  In total, at least 93,400 patients have gone to A&E due to issues relating to tooth decay since 2019.

The Liberal Democrats said that it was a “national scandal” that children are ending up in A&E in agony because they can’t get a dentist appointment. The party warned the government was showing a “devastating lack of ambition” in fixing dental deserts and called for urgent reforms to the broken NHS dental contract to tackle the chronic lack of dental care in many areas. The Liberal Democrats are also calling for an emergency scheme to guarantee access to free NHS dental check-ups for those already eligible, including children and new mothers.

The Government has previously stated that tooth decay was still the most common reason for hospital admissions in children aged between 5 and 9 years old. It comes amidst harrowing stories of people resorting to DIY dentistry due to the lack of dental care available. In Oswestry, North Shropshire, where one practice recently handed back its NHS contract due to not being able to balance its books, a man pulled his own tooth out with pliers after six months in agony not being able to find an NHS dentist.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP said:

"It is a national scandal that children are ending up in A&E in agony because they can’t get a dentist appointment. Parents are being forced to watch their little ones cry through the night, all because the NHS dental system has been left to rot. We’re now seeing vast swathes of the country being turned into dental deserts, with no sign of things getting better.

"The Conservatives had years to fix this crisis, but instead their neglect only led to it spiralling out of control. Now, the Labour government is showing a devastating lack of ambition to turn things around. Our children deserve better. No parent should have to choose between waiting for hours in A&E or watching their child suffer in pain.

“This almost medieval situation of people pulling their own teeth out with pliers as they can’t get an appointment must end. That must start with a complete overhaul of the dental contract to boost the numbers of dentists and appointments and finally rid this country of dental deserts.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The research by the Liberal Democrats can be found here.

The Government's statement on children attending A&E to tooth decay can be found here.

FOI questions

The number of A&E attendances to your NHS trust attributed to issues related to tooth decay in each of the following years a). 2019, b). 2020, c). 2021, d). 2022, e). 2023, f). 2024

The number of A&E attendances to your NHS trust of someone aged under the age of 18 attributed to issues related to tooth decay in each of the following years a). 2019, b). 2020, c). 2021, d). 2022, e). 2023, f). 2024