Oral health

It can result in pain, serious infections, sleepless nights, and loss of confidence and self-esteem. You might need to take time off work, or your children take time out of school to see a dentist or attend hospital. More widely, poor oral health can have an impact on your social life and employment.

Oral health includes a range of diseases and conditions that comprise dental caries (decay), periodontal (gum) disease, tooth loss, oral cancer, dental trauma, and birth defects such as cleft lip and palate. It also impacts our ability to speak and smile.

While oral health has improved significantly over the last twenty years, tooth decay remains the most common oral disease affecting children and young people in England, yet it is largely preventable.

• Durham Insight: oral health factsheet
• Office of Health Improvement and Disparities: oral health profiles

Oral health promotion strategy

We are responsible for health improvement, and this includes oral health. Many factors affect a person's ability to care for their oral health including poverty, isolation, poor mobility and physical or mental ill health. This strategy looks at ways we can help people by giving everybody the opportunity to access the information and support they need to improve their oral health.

We aim to improve the oral health of everyone living in County Durham, reduce the inequalities that poor oral health brings, and work with our partners and local communities to promote good oral health across all ages.