Dental Health, Oral Disorders & Therapy

Correspondence:

Received: January 01, 1970 | Published: ,

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Background

Dental and oral health in Glasgow is the poorest in the United Kingdom but is improving steadily, according to national targets set and achieved by National Health Service (NHS) Scotland Boards. The Government has employed various preventative measures and introduced national and regional programmes to improve the oral health of adults, as well as children - such as Childsmile which aims to ‘improve the oral health of children in Scotland and reduce inequalities in dental health and access to dental services’.¹ This can be illustrated through dental indices such as mean number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) which indicates, for example, a gradual decline in mean number of DMFT in primary one school children in Scotland from 2003-2012.² In addition, there is greater focus on providing effective oral hygiene instruction - dietary and tooth brushing advice - to patients in order to prevent and tackle common dental and oral health diseases such as dental caries, periodontal disease, as well as oral cancer. The progress of such focus can be demonstrated through data from the most recent Scottish Health Survey which reported that ’90% of adults had all or some of their own natural teeth in 2011 (91% of men and 89% of women)’.³

By therefore examining the dental and oral health of adults and children in Glasgow, I aim to demonstrate the successful and continuing efforts of NHS Scotland in aiming to shift restorative dentistry towards more preventative dentistry, and the positive impact on the population of Glasgow.