CHILDREN from poorer families in Worcester are more likely to suffer with dental problems according to a recent report.

Youngsters who attend schools classified as deprived by the Office for National Statistics, were reported as having more tooth decay.

And those whose parents have routine or manual jobs are more likely to experience tooth decay than those whose parents are in managerial or professional positions, the report states.

"As a dentist and one that has studied public health, I do find, over and over again, that less well-off people have greater health problems all round," said Alan McMichael, of South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust.

"But this can be down to a number of reasons. It's not simply the cost of treatment or access to it. It's generally found that those who need it most are the ones that don't tend to seek it and we don't know why this is."

The conclusions followed publication of the 2003 Children's Dental Health Survey.

In deprived schools, which are those classified as having at least 30 per cent of children eligible for free school meals, 60 per cent of five-year-olds and 70 per cent of eight-year-olds had obvious decay in their primary "milk" teeth.

That is compared with 40 per cent of five-year-olds and 55 per cent of eight-year-olds attending non-deprived schools.

In permanent teeth, 55 per cent of 12-year-olds and 72 per cent of 15-year-olds attending deprived schools had experience of obvious decay compared with 42 per cent of 12-year-olds and 55 per cent of 15-year-olds in non-deprived schools.

The problems have been blamed on the lack of dental provision available to children.

Around a fifth of parents of five and eight-year-olds and around a quarter of parents of 12 and 15-year-olds have reported difficulties accessing an NHS dentist willing to treat their child.

However, children are visiting the dentist at an earlier age than ever now with the proportion of five and eight-year-olds making their first visit to the dentist before the age of two more than doubling since 1993.

"The number of children registered with a dentist in this area is rising and this is good news," said Mr McMichael.

"Access could contribute to the problems but I don't think this is a major factor. There are many other factors, such as diet and exercise."