The dental health of primary seven (P7) pupils in Scotland has reached the best level ever recorded.

The proportion of children with no obvious decay experience is 63.6%. This exceeds the national target set by the Scottish Government, which states that at least 60% of P7 pupils show no signs of obvious decay experience in their permanent (second) teeth by 2010.

The full report, published by the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP), shows that ten of the 14 NHS Boards in Scotland now exceed the target, with four NHS Boards only a few percentage points below this level.

Today's publication of results covers the school year 2008 to 2009.  The survey focuses on P7 children and continues to show an improving trend in the percentage of P7 children who show no signs of having decay, extractions or restorative treatment in their permanent teeth.

Graham Ball, Chairman of the Scottish Dental Epidemiology Co-ordinating Committee and Consultant in Dental Public Health for NHS Fife, said the results were extremely encouraging.

"This is the third survey of P7 children since 2005 and it shows that dental health in this age group is steadily getting better.  This is an improvement of over 10% since the 2005 survey of this age group when 52.9% of 11 year olds were found to have no obvious decay experience in their adult teeth. We now have the best level of dental health for P7 children in Scotland since records began."  

With all the ongoing dental initiatives currently in place throughout Scotland, this improving trend should continue, with the dental health of P7 children in Scotland benefiting still further.

"The results continue to identify a strong association between social deprivation and dental disease, with those in the least deprived areas having fewer teeth affected by dental decay than those in more deprived areas. However, it is particularly encouraging to see in this report that dental health has improved across all areas with larger gains being seen in areas where deprivation is at its greatest."

Mr Ball added: "Both local and national initiatives to improve dental health in children have been ongoing for several years and these results confirm the benefits of those investments.  

"However, we must ensure that this work continues to be a priority in the long term if young people in Scotland today, and the adults of tomorrow, are to have better dental health than their forebearers."

Download a copy of the 2009 NDIP report

Click here to access previous years reports