Tooth decay affects a quarter of children in Barnet and poses a “significant public health burden”, according to a council report.

The problem is highest among the most deprived parts of the borough, affecting as many as 35% to 40% of youngsters living in West Hendon, Childs Hill and Burnt Oak.

Health inequalities are thought to have worsened since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw school closures and periods of limited access to dental care. Before the pandemic, around half (53%) of 0-19 year olds in Barnet accessed NHS dental care, but this fell to 21% in 2020/21.

Tooth decay is the leading reason for hospital admissions for five to nine-year-olds, and tooth extractions for those aged up to 19 are estimated to cost the NHS around £50million per year.

The figures are included in a children and young people’s oral health needs assessment, which was presented to a meeting of Barnet Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee on Thursday. The report examines a range of social, environmental and behavioural factors that contribute to oral hygiene, sets out some of the work currently being done in the borough to improve oral health, and makes recommendations for further measures.

Maeve Gill, the council’s public health specialty registrar, told the meeting that parents spoken to as part of the research had said they knew many of the main key oral health messages but “in the context of busy lives, there is a difference between what you know and what is possible in practice”.

She added: “They [parents] also talked about how their children’s preferences for sugar consumption are shaped by the environment – both the physical environment and what children are exposed to by going to the shops, and the social environment – what they are seeing their older siblings and family members doing.”

The main recommendations from the report that can be achieved within available resources include maximising the impact of the existing oral health promotion service, which would involve training the wider workforce in health, education and social care; and ensuring a supervised toothbrushing programme – dubbed ‘Barnet Young Brushers’ – is targeting areas of deprivation.

Maeve said that additional resources could enable targeted community fluoride varnishing programmes and improved access to dental treatments for looked-after children in placements outside of London.

Caroline Stock, a Conservative committee member, suggested following a US model that involves working with dental product manufacturers on oral health campaigns in deprived areas, as well as a “dedicated dentist” who could visit the worst-affected parts of the borough.

Barnet’s director of public health, Dr Tamara Djuretic, said a dedicated dentist would be the responsibility of NHS England. Although she said it would be a “good opportunity”, Dr Djuretic suggested there was currently a lack of resources for such an initiative. Officers agreed to consider campaigns involving the private sector.

Rishikesh Chakraborty, a Labour committee member representing West Hendon, proposed contacting faith institutions, schools and community groups to “ramp up the communication around the importance of brushing teeth two times per day”. Officers welcomed efforts to promote the supervised toothbrushing programme and said details of work with the wider community would be set out in a forthcoming action plan.

Anne Hutton, another Labour committee member, suggested writing to the health secretary stating that the committee was “very concerned about the lack of NHS dentists” and asking what he proposed to do about it. Committee chair Philip Cohen suggested first raising the issue at a joint health scrutiny meeting with other boroughs, given the lack of resources was likely to be a London-wide problem.

The full report is available to view here.