More than half of children under five in Blackburn and Darwen have tooth decay

Shocking figures show that they are more than twice as likely as the national average to suffer poor dental health.

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The oral health survey published by Public Health England yesterday revealed that 55.7 per cent of the borough’s children start school with tooth cavities. This compares with a national figure of 25 per cent, which has fallen by two per cent since the last survey in 2012.

All but one of the other local authority areas in the region also had rates exceeding the national average, with only the Ribble Valley lower at just under 20 per cent.

Dominic Harrison, director of public health for Blackburn with Darwen, said: “It is clear that families in Blackburn with Darwen appear to be more susceptible to consumption of high sugar products, which drives dental health to be much worse than the national average.

“We need to do all we can to hold back the tide of hidden sugar and advertising that targets young children.”

Mr Harrison cited breakfast cereals and fizzy drinks as two of the products that were particularly attractive to children and which often had a high sugar content.

He said that interventions and health programmes were being used, including identifying vulnerable children through nurseries and children’s centres, providing free toothpaste and educating communities about which products have high sugar content.

Other areas in East Lancashire also showed alarming results, most of which were well above the national average. Hyndburn had a rate of 43.5 per cent, Pendle 43.3 per cent, Burnley 42.6 per cent and Rossendale 33.3 per cent. Only Ribble Valley bucked the trend with 19.9 per cent.

In the North West, 33.4 per cent suffer tooth decay compared with only 20.1 per cent in the South East.

County Cllr Azhar Ali, cabinet member for health and well-being, said that although interventions to help address the problem were underway, more money was needed to sustain and expand these, for instance by providing free school milk.

He said: “We need to be tougher on advertising and I’ve always been in favour of a sugar tax.

“This would provide money so that we could then address other health issues caused by too much sugar such as obesity.”

As with the previous two surveys, in 2012 and 2008, areas with higher deprivation tend to have higher levels of tooth decay.