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Dentistry (Nottingham, North)

As I have just had my tonsils removed, I intend to make an equally truncated introduction to this very important debate. The Minister has had a copy of my full speech since Monday, and it also appears on my website. In essence, I should like the Minister to comment on how we can improve NHS dentistry in my constituency. The state of children's dental health in Nottingham is the second worst in the country—it is at the average level found in England 35 years ago. Half the under-fives have never been to a dentist. A local teacher told me about primary school children who had dirty or black teeth or who had lost their second teeth, and described the excitement of a six-year-old girl at having a toothbrush—she had never had one before. Children in the most deprived fifth of schools, typical of my constituency, have four times as many decayed, missing and filled teeth as those in the top fifth. Local dentists, the local NHS and the Government have worked hard on the problems but it seems that recent reforms, including changes to the dentist contract and payments, may even have made the situation worse. Quick extractions are up, time-consuming repair work is down. Three simple steps would help to put things right: first, registering every child and every adult with their local dentist; secondly, ensuring that the dentist contract rewards prevention, and not only extraction; and thirdly, giving every child and adult a free dental check-up every year. That dental MOT for everyone could be paid for through a reformed charging scale and revised dental contracts. Nothing less than that ambition will meet the scale of the problem in constituencies such as mine. Incidentally, Nottingham would be the perfect place to hold the pilot. I should like the Minister to comment on that. I hope the Minister agrees that never again should the House hear of a girl in my constituency or anywhere else who only gets her first toothbrush when she is six years old.