CHILDREN in Worcestershire have much better teeth than their neighbours in Herefordshire, according to a new study.

The research, co-ordinated by the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry, is part of an on-going review of children's dental health.

Figures show that 73 per cent of five-year-olds in Worcestershire are completely free from decay, compared to 58 per cent in Herefordshire, where children have the worst teeth in the West Midlands.

An average group of 100 Worcestershire youngsters was found to have a total of 83 teeth affected by decay, compared with 175 affected teeth among their Herefordshire counterparts.

The research was carried out during 2001-02, when dental experts inspected the mouths of 5,364 Worcestershire five-year-olds and recorded the number of teeth found decayed, missing or filled.

From this information they worked out an average dental "score" for youngsters.

Health officials believe water fluoridation is the major factor in dental health differences between the two counties.

Evidence from Britain and many other countries shows that tooth decay is reduced when the natural fluoride content of water is topped up to the optimum level of one part fluoride per million parts of water.

"The latest study confirms yet again the dental benefits of water fluoridation," said Alan McMichael, consultant in dental public health for Worcestershire.

Worcestershire and Herefordshire offered excellent examples of the difference fluoridation made to children's teeth, he said.

Under an agreement between Worcestershire's health services and Severn Trent Water, fluoridated water is supplied to more than two thirds of people living in the county, but there are no agreements covering Herefordshire, where the natural fluoride level in water was too low to offer protection against dental disease.

Across the West Midlands as a whole, just over 70 per cent of the population receives water with added fluoride.