Dentist: How long have kids had to wait for dental care?

Children in some areas of England are waiting up to a year and a half on average for certain dental procedures, like having a tooth taken out.

The study said that at the start of this year, more than 12,000 under-18s were on waiting lists for assessment or treatment at community dental service (CDS) providers.

Children are referred to a CDS provider when they have tooth decay too severe to be treated in a general practice dentist.

The clinics also treat people with physical or learning disabilities when general practice is not a practical option.

The data was obtained by the political party the Liberal Democrats from the NHS Business Services Authority and shared with BBC News.

Removing decayed teeth is the most common reason for needing the service.

Some children have been left with long-term dental pain,

The parents of one girl who has waited three years for teeth to be taken out said say the pain keeps her awake at night.

Are there long waiting times all over England?

The longest average wait faced by children for general-anaesthetic treatment at a CDS provider was found to be 80 weeks, at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.

But some providers have much lower average waits - at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, it is just three weeks.

The Designed to Smile programme encourages children to brush their teeth

Tooth decay is the most common reason six to 10 year olds are admitted to hospital.

In England, more than 42,000 teeth were extracted from under-19s in 2021-22, costing the NHS an estimated £81m.

But the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities analysis reveals a big difference between regions in England.

In the 2021-22 financial year Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest rate of decay-related extractions for under-19s.

They saw 378 per 100,000 children, while East Midlands had the lowest, with 71 per 100,000.

What has the impact of long waits been on children?

Ella who is eight, from Dovercourt in Essex, has been waiting three years to have rotten teeth removed.

She first went to the dentist with a painful milk tooth in December 2019, was given a temporary filling and told it needed to be removed but has still not had the NHS procedure.

Now, seven more of her milk teeth need to be removed.

Ella's father, Charlie said: "It always seems to be in the evening that she suffers the pain. So then obviously we've got the problem of overnight and then fatigue because obviously she's awake most of the night.

"She's started to sort of resent brushing her teeth because it's giving her pain - and we're starting to get concerned it's going to cause further problems."

Staff at some schools are doing what they can to try and help.

Maybury Primary School in Hull, are doing their best to help keep pupils' teeth healthy, by asking every pupil to brush their teeth after lunch.

Dentists from the charity Teeth Team also visit children at primary schools across Hull and parts of East Yorkshire.

Sara Feldt, from Teeth Team, says the needs in the school are "exceptionally high" and "high proportion of those are in urgent need".

This is because there are four or more decays or cavities in the children's teeth.

Sara added: "Good oral hygiene, regular toothbrushing, limiting sugar, limiting the fizzy drinks. We need a little bit more education out there to prevent this happening."

Another dental charity called Dentaid has also done some schools visits.

It typically provides dental treatments to people in the UK who are vulnerable like the homeless, and those in developing countries who would not normally be able to access it - but started working in schools after they teaching staff asking for help for their pupils.

A Department of Health and Social Care official said: "We are working to improve access to NHS dental care - investing more than £3bn a year into dentistry - and the number of children seen by NHS dentists rose by 43.6% last year.

"We have increased the funding practices receive for urgent care, to encourage dentists to provide more NHS treatments and we're also taking preventative measures to improve children's oral health, such as expanding water-fluoridation schemes - which can significantly reduce the number of children experiencing tooth decay. Further reforms are planned for this year."

Have you had a wait a long time to see the dentist, or have you been able to get an treatment quickly? Let us know in the comments below.