Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate she has made of the number of children admitted to hospital because of dental related emergencies in the last year.

In 2022/23, 29,318 children aged between five and 17 years old admitted to hospital had the primary diagnosis of tooth decay. The available data does not identify planned and emergency admissions separately.

We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make National Health Service work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.