Caroline Lucas

The Green Party are to launch their dental health policy for the general election. They hope it will enjoy widespread public support and boost the party’s hopes of a general election breakthrough.

A spokesman for the Greens said:
"The 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, 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."

Caroline Lucas, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion constituency, said:
"£1.8 billion a year is a relatively small 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.

"Water fluoridation is a 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 about the Greens view:
www.brightonhovegreens.org