Parents across Essex are ignoring their children’s dental hygiene while maintaining their own regular check-ups, new figures have suggested.

The worst culprits appear to live in the Brentwood and Basildon CCG area, where the number of children having dental check-ups fell from almost 41,000 in the previous 12 months to 2013/2014, to just over 32,500 four years later – a drop of 20 per cent.

The number of adults seeing a dentist in the previous 24 months to 2013/2014, compared to four years later, fell by just 0.34 per cent.

The CCG has one of the worst levels of childhood tooth decay in the East of England.

Cygnet Dental Practice in Wickford is offering local nurseries and preschools the opportunity for dental professionals to pay them a visit to teach children about looking after their smiles and prepare them for visiting the dentist.

Dental nurse Emma Gunner, who is leading the initiative at Cygnet to increase uptake among children, said: “It’s a lack of education.

“Parents are unaware when they should take their children to the dentist, so they are taking them later.

“They are quite busy so unfortunately unless they have a problem they are not reminded to take them.

“That is why we are doing the big campaign at the moment for a dental check by one year old.

“Children should be seen by one if not from six months upwards – as soon as they have teeth.

“Almost no parents know about that.

“It is hard because children are free at an NHS dental surgery, so there is nothing financially stopping children gong to the dentist.

“There are quite a few which are taking NHS patients. We are NHS and we are taking new patients.

“We have had an increase in children but that is down to the work we have been doing.

“We are the first port of call for mothers – we do new parents, weaning groups and remind them when they should be going.”

The figures are also sobering in mid Essex where the number of children attending dental appointments fell from 55,120 to 48,276 – a fall of 12 per cent.

Meanwhile the number of adults using dentists increased by one per cent from 173,620 to 175,293.

In Castle Point the number of adults seeing a dentist rose from 59,558 to 67,973, while the number of children seeing a dentist fell from 19,684 to 18,373.

In Thurrock the number of adults rose from 49,092 to 50,961, while the number of children seeing a dentist fell from 21,684 to 19,140.

And in North East Essex the number of adults seeing NHS dentists fell from 139,373 to  135,037 for adults and 43,949 to 37,207 for children.

Figures released in 2017 showed that barely half of the children living in Essex have been to an NHS dentist in the previous year.

Data revealed that 53.8 per cent of children in the county visited an NHS dentist at least once in 2016.

That means a staggering 163,000 children, the remaining 46.2 per cent, did not go.

People who can get access to an NHS dentist will often get treatment much more cheaply than they would at a private practice.

For example, fillings, extractions and root canal treatments cost as little as £56.30 on the NHS, whereas these may cost hundreds of pounds privately.

The East of England had just one dentist practising in the NHS for every 2,254 people in 2015 and 2016.

The NHS England Midlands and East recently published a press release about an initiative called Dental Check By One.

NHS England is also currently working with the dental profession, the Local Professional Dental Network (LDN) and health providers to explore how we can encourage more young children in Essex to see a dentist.

In supporting the Dental Check By One campaign, the LDN organised evening promotion events for dental professionals in Essex to attend.