Toothpaste and table sauces, that’s where inflation is hitting me hardest.
Toothpaste – £0.50 for ASDA Just Essentials brand.
Toothbrush – £0.25 for ASDA brand twin pack.
Named brands don’t immediately jump to the expensive either. Toothbrushes there’s Oral B for a quid and 3 pack Colgate for the same. Toothpaste there’s Aquafresh for £0.80 and a tube of Oral B for £0.98. These prices are taken from the ASDA app, just now.
This is nothing to do with the cost of living crisis. People have had poor dental hygiene for many decades now and it is linked to poverty but it’s not because it’s unaffordable.
Dental care is at its best when it’s provided as a preventative resource, but we do not promote proactive dentistry in this country, and focus entirely on reactive dentistry.
A fantastic example of this has been the dental outcomes of my sisters and I. I remember being a kid in the mid-90’s, and my two older sisters being summoned to the dentist for an appointment to receive some sort of free preventative treatment that involved having their teeth painted with a substance that helped protect the enamel. My younger sister and I missed out on this treatment as by the time we were old enough to be eligible to receive it, for whatever reason the treatment had been phased out and withdrawn.
Guess which sisters today have perfect teeth with no caries and zero extractions, and guess which ones have multiple caries and extractions and now suffer with lifelong dental problems.
What tosh. Toothpaste and toothbrushes are not expensive. Kids just aren’t been made to brush their teeth.
Teachers are hopefully reporting those parents of the kids.
Toothpaste is incredibly cheap.
Stick more fluoride I’m water FFS. They’ve trialled it in areas and seen reductions in cavity rates.
People are harping on about toothpaste being inexpensive but I think it’s more than that,
I’m just throwing out ideas here but imagine a single parent working two jobs to make ends meet. Maybe the kids have to get a lift to school with the neighbours or stay late at school because of work. Maybe the morning is such mayhem that the parent doesn’t have time to enforce habits or an older sibling is responsible for getting the kid up in the morning and they let things slip. Or they put themselves to bed and don’t brush because mum can’t afford to turn down a late shift.
Or maybe those things like being time poor make it harder to keep on top of dental appointments etc. Maybe the dentist locally shut down and it’s an extra expense to get to the next town over.
I know my mum was on a tight schedule as a single mum with two kids to get to school and herself to work. If I threw a fit about not brushing my teeth in the morning she wouldn’t have had the time to argue and it was better just to shove me out the door.
Toothbrushes and toothpaste…about £1.00 each and last weeks.
This is utter BS.
If someone slips on a fucking banana peel, it’s due to the *cost of living crisis.*
Scotland’s CHILDSMILE program has been great at reducing the incidence of caries in the child population – especially amongst kids most at risk (those in the areas of highest deprivation)
At a population level, every child will has access to:
A tailored programme of care within Primary Care Dental Services.
Free daily supervised toothbrushing in nursery.
Free dental packs to support toothbrushing at home.
Directed support targeting children and families in greatest need through:
Additional home support and community interventions.
An enhanced programme of care within Primary Care Dental Services.
Clinical preventive programmes in priority nursery and primary schools and facilitation into dental services as appropriate.
Daily supervised toothbrushing in P1 and P2 priority primary schools.
Let’s stop at placing blame around and start looking at solutions.
9 comments
Toothpaste and table sauces, that’s where inflation is hitting me hardest.
Toothpaste – £0.50 for ASDA Just Essentials brand.
Toothbrush – £0.25 for ASDA brand twin pack.
Named brands don’t immediately jump to the expensive either. Toothbrushes there’s Oral B for a quid and 3 pack Colgate for the same. Toothpaste there’s Aquafresh for £0.80 and a tube of Oral B for £0.98. These prices are taken from the ASDA app, just now.
This is nothing to do with the cost of living crisis. People have had poor dental hygiene for many decades now and it is linked to poverty but it’s not because it’s unaffordable.
Dental care is at its best when it’s provided as a preventative resource, but we do not promote proactive dentistry in this country, and focus entirely on reactive dentistry.
A fantastic example of this has been the dental outcomes of my sisters and I. I remember being a kid in the mid-90’s, and my two older sisters being summoned to the dentist for an appointment to receive some sort of free preventative treatment that involved having their teeth painted with a substance that helped protect the enamel. My younger sister and I missed out on this treatment as by the time we were old enough to be eligible to receive it, for whatever reason the treatment had been phased out and withdrawn.
Guess which sisters today have perfect teeth with no caries and zero extractions, and guess which ones have multiple caries and extractions and now suffer with lifelong dental problems.
What tosh. Toothpaste and toothbrushes are not expensive. Kids just aren’t been made to brush their teeth.
Teachers are hopefully reporting those parents of the kids.
Toothpaste is incredibly cheap.
Stick more fluoride I’m water FFS. They’ve trialled it in areas and seen reductions in cavity rates.
People are harping on about toothpaste being inexpensive but I think it’s more than that,
I’m just throwing out ideas here but imagine a single parent working two jobs to make ends meet. Maybe the kids have to get a lift to school with the neighbours or stay late at school because of work. Maybe the morning is such mayhem that the parent doesn’t have time to enforce habits or an older sibling is responsible for getting the kid up in the morning and they let things slip. Or they put themselves to bed and don’t brush because mum can’t afford to turn down a late shift.
Or maybe those things like being time poor make it harder to keep on top of dental appointments etc. Maybe the dentist locally shut down and it’s an extra expense to get to the next town over.
I know my mum was on a tight schedule as a single mum with two kids to get to school and herself to work. If I threw a fit about not brushing my teeth in the morning she wouldn’t have had the time to argue and it was better just to shove me out the door.
Toothbrushes and toothpaste…about £1.00 each and last weeks.
This is utter BS.
If someone slips on a fucking banana peel, it’s due to the *cost of living crisis.*
Scotland’s CHILDSMILE program has been great at reducing the incidence of caries in the child population – especially amongst kids most at risk (those in the areas of highest deprivation)
At a population level, every child will has access to:
A tailored programme of care within Primary Care Dental Services.
Free daily supervised toothbrushing in nursery.
Free dental packs to support toothbrushing at home.
Directed support targeting children and families in greatest need through:
Additional home support and community interventions.
An enhanced programme of care within Primary Care Dental Services.
Clinical preventive programmes in priority nursery and primary schools and facilitation into dental services as appropriate.
Daily supervised toothbrushing in P1 and P2 priority primary schools.
Let’s stop at placing blame around and start looking at solutions.