Tesco has cut the price of children’s toothbrushes and toothpastes by 20% in a move to help fight tooth decay.
The supermarket announced that from Monday 9 October, it is reducing the price of its children’s Pro Formula Steps range.
It says that by paying the VAT, it aims to make them as affordable as possible for families who might be struggling as a result of the cost of living crisis.
Recent figures show that 23.7% of five-year-old children in England had experience of tooth decay. Children living in the most deprived areas of the country were almost three times as likely to have experience of dental decay (35.1%) as those living in the least deprived areas (13.5%).
Tesco’s head of health campaigns, Oonagh Turnbull, said: ‘Parents who are struggling to make ends meet shouldn’t have to make the difficult choice between looking after their children’s teeth and affording the weekly shop.
‘Healthy teeth and gums shouldn’t have to be a luxury, which is why we’re making our kids’ oral care range affordable as possible.’
Paying the price
New data from the Liberal Democrats has shown that more than 4.4 million children in England were not seen by an NHS dentist in the last 12 months.
The research was commissioned by the House of Commons Library and focused on the 12 months leading up to June 2023. It showed that across the country, 38.7% of children had not received the annual NHS checkup recommended in the health service’s guidelines.
Nearly one million of these children were based in the east of England, accounting for half of all children in the area. Norfolk and Waveney had the worst rate of attendance nationwide. In those regions, only 45% of children have seen an NHS dentist in the past year.
BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: ‘Our youngest patients are already paying the price for a crisis made in Westminster.
‘These access problems are the result of political choices. Every political party needs to wake up and offer a plan of action, otherwise this service won’t have a future.’
The data does not account for children who may have received dental care privately.
Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.
