The Green Party launched its dental health policy for the general election yesterday, 1 March.

Greens are committed to the founding principles of the NHS - including free dental health care, which they say could be provided for an extra £1.8 billion a year.

In Sussex, more than a quarter of children have decayed or missing teeth or fillings by the age of five [1], and an average of 10% of the total admissions to Sussex's main hospitals for general and local anaesthetics during 2008 were for dental treatment [2].

Caroline Lucas, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion constituency said: "£1.8 billion a year is a trifling sum for a huge improvement in Britain's dental health service.

"Everyone who wants one should have access to an NHS dentist, and we must end the scandal of British children in the twenty-first century suffering the pain and misery that come with poor teeth."

Caroline, who is MEP for the South East including Brighton, continued:"People in Brighton and Hove have some of the best teeth in the country, and I want to ensure that people all over Britain have access to the same kind of care.

"Water fluoridation is a cheap, tacky, sticking plaster solution with side-effects - mass medication of doubtful efficacy and potential side-effects is no substitute for a proper dental health care strategy.

"We need to be teaching new parents how to look after their toddlers' teeth, and teaching young children from nursery onwards all about how to look after their own teeth properly."

For more information please contact the Brighton and Hove Green Party office on 01273 766 670.

1. Please see link to Argus article: http://bit.ly/bND78Q    

2. Please see: http://www2.fluoridealert.org/Alert/United-Kingdom/England/Hundreds-of-Sussex-children-being-treated-for-tooth-decay