The British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD) welcomes the publication of the discussion document “Choosing the right ingredients - The future for Food in Scotland.” A reply from Colwyn M Jones.
The British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry urges the government to take positive action to promote access to a healthy diet for all and to remove the influence of commercial companies on young children through banning the advertising of foods high in sugar, salt and fat. Whilst our prime concerns are with the unacceptably high levels of dental decay in some groups we see the need for joint working on a common risk factor approach to improving diet and hence oral and general health.
Measuring the impact of oral problems on the quality of life among
adults.
Information about the dental health of children throughout Great Britain is
widely available and robust. In contrast, data about adults and about the impact
on the quality of life of oral problems is less well covered. The decennial
surveys of adult dental health are useful but much of the information cannot be
analysed below large regional level and the rest only by synthesis. This has
resulted in shortfalls of information to assist with planning local services
within PCTs and a number of steps have been taken during 2006 /07 to explore a
variety of methods of collecting relevant data about adult dental health, impact
on quality of life and service use. Download the survey
report.
In conjunction with the National Health Service, the
British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry has
been coordinating a series of epidemiological surveys of caries prevalence in UK
children since 1985 / 1986. Reports and tables from these surveys are published
annually in Community Dental Health. These reports have
been reproduced in this section of the BASCD web-site.
