Caries is still present in many children

26-02-2019

More attention to oral health at consultation centers needed! Caries is still present in many children. This applies in particular to children who cannot reach the dental care professional in time. Oral care will continue to optimize its prevention programs, but that is not enough to reach all groups. Actions from the government are needed to combat caries even better.

Following the publication of its 'Signalement Mondzorg 2018', the Zorginstituut Nederland (ZiNL) held an 'expert meeting' on 5 February 2018, to which social and scientific associations in oral care and the GGD were invited. The aim was to identify which measures could be taken by the sector on the basis of the findings described in the monitoring report to improve the oral health of young people.

The Ivory Cross had issued a press release for this meeting in which it stated that the ZiNL report on children's oral health does not provide sufficient basis for policy choices. Our impression was confirmed during the meeting by further explanation and discussion. Partly due to the lack of figures on the oral health of children from the disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the Ivoren Cross maintains its opinion that the oral health of young people has neither improved nor deteriorated significantly over the past 10-15 years. The enormous health gain that oral care professionals have collectively achieved in the past half century has come to a standstill. Caries is still present in many children. This applies in particular to children who cannot reach the dental care professional in time. Oral care will continue to optimize its prevention programs, but that is not enough to reach all groups. Actions from the government are needed to combat caries even better.

The oral care professional can only reach that part of the young people if the parents are prepared to come to the oral care professional at a very early stage of their children's life. Due to the high costs of dental care, many parents avoid their own dental visits and therefore no longer take their children with them. However, approximately 95% of all children in the Netherlands visit a consultation centre. The task of referring children to an oral care professional from the moment the first tooth erupts is the responsibility of the health clinic, but it appears to be insufficient. Although oral care is part of the basic package of tasks of youth health care (JGZ), oral care is rarely discussed during consultations. Pediatricians and youth nurses indicate that they have little time and knowledge for this. Moreover, most consultation centers and GGDs said goodbye to their dental preventive employees (TPM) years ago. It was therefore disappointing to notice that the GGD did not accept ZiNL's invitation to participate in this meeting. ZiNL has been asked to strengthen the place of oral care within public health and to encourage GGD to jointly look for solutions with the oral care parties so that all children in the Netherlands have an equal chance of a healthy mouth.

The 2018 Oral Care Report has also given us cause to worry about a new problem. Thanks to, among other things, drinking too much soft drinks, it has been shown that the number of cases of dental erosion in 17-year-olds has increased alarmingly in the group of young people studied. Dental erosion is the dissolution of tooth enamel due to exposure to acids, causing the entire enamel cap of teeth to disappear/dissolve evenly. Restoring this is very complex and expensive and means a lifelong treatment cycle! The dental care professional provides information to prevent dental erosion. The government can help by taking generic measures (eg giving the same kind of warning to eroding soft drinks as on cigarette packs, banning soft drinks from school and sports canteens and replacing them with healthy choices).

The Ivoren Cross hereby calls on the government to take its responsibility so that we can work together on a healthy mouth population!