Britons need to be better educated when it comes to keeping their teeth healthy, a new report has shown.
In order to avoid a trip to the emergency dentist, it is key for dental professionals to encourage young people to visit the dentist more often, according to research carried out by Health and Adult Social Care scrutiny councillors in Nottingham.
Councillor Ginny Klein, chair of the scrutiny committee, said: "Nottingham does not have a good record on oral health. We wanted to find out what stops people from going to the dentist and work out how we can encourage them to take care of their mouths and teeth."
Elsewhere, a new initiative based at University College Cork and funded by the Irish Health Research Board hopes to produce a set of guidelines that will help reduce instances of childhood tooth decay.
Lead researcher and senior dental surgeon Dr Carmel Parnell noted that at present, children are seeing their dentists too late and it is now a matter of getting people to come forward early while treatment can still be carried out to save the teeth.