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Introduction

Health and wellbeing is determined by a complex interaction between a person’s fixed characteristics (age, gender and genetics) and factors such as their lifestyles choices, the social and physical settings in which they live, and the wider socio-economic, cultural, and environmental conditions.

The health of the people of Plymouth compared to the England average varies across a range of measures. Although life expectancy has increased for both males and females over the last fifteen years, it’s still slightly less in Plymouth than the UK average. There’s also a life expectancy gap of over four years between some of the most and least deprived areas of the city.

A detailed analysis of the health and wellbeing of Plymouth’s residents can be found in the Plymouth Report and information on a range of health and wellbeing topics can be found in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

The Plymouth Plan
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Helping us measure SO1 – Delivering a healthy city in the Plymouth Plan

People in Plymouth get the best start to life with improved health, increased life expectancy, and a better quality of life

The Plymouth Plan
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Helping us measure SO1 – Delivering a healthy city in the Plymouth Plan

Overall satisfaction of people who use services with their care and support (extremely or very satisfied)

Health and wellbeing
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Children's health
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The Plymouth Plan
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Helping us measure SO1 – Delivering a healthy city in the Plymouth Plan

More people taking care of themselves

Oral heath

Plymouth oral health needs assessment

New report highlights Plymouth’s dental health needs

Good oral health is not evenly distributed in Plymouth. People living in the more deprived areas of Plymouth experience more health impacts from poor oral health. They are more likely to need urgent dental care visits and more likely to require a general anaesthetic for dental extractions.

This comes at a large cost to individuals, families and the NHS, despite tooth decay being a preventable disease. Although there are a number of primary and secondary dental services in Plymouth, waiting list and access data suggest that many people, especially those living in more deprived areas, are experiencing lengthy delays when they try to access routine NHS dental care.

There are many effective ways to keep people’s teeth and mouths healthy. Plymouth has a number of oral health improvement programmes in place, particularly for children and young people. Plymouth’s population would benefit from additional oral health improvement activity for people of all ages who are at increased risk of poor oral health, to reduce their experience of oral health problems in the future.

People in Plymouth would also benefit from increased access to routine and urgent NHS dental care to manage existing dental problems before those problems impact upon everyday life.

The report was presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board on 9 January 2020.

Oral heath

Dental extractions under GA in children (aged 16 years and under

Announcement of a new Plymouth report of child dental extractions under general anaesthetic (GA)

In 2022/23, a total of 493 Plymouth-resident children had teeth extracted under general anaesthetic (GA) at a rate of 100.8 per 10,000. Between them, a total of 1,990 teeth were removed. These are the findings of the latest summary of dental extractions under GA in children (aged 16 years and under). The report provides a picture of the issues related to the dental health of children and young people locally, together with trend information over the past nine years.

Since 2014/15, over 27,000 children’s teeth have been extracted under GA in Plymouth.

The latest findings for 2022/23 show the rate of dental extractions ranged from 47.5 per 10,000 in Plymstock Dunstone to 157.0 per 10,000 in Sutton & Mount Gould. The highest electoral ward rate was over three times higher than the lowest rate.
Across Plymouth, the highest rates of extractions are evident in the wards to the north and northwest of the city with an additional pocket located central southwest.

A strong relationship exists between dental decay and material deprivation, as dental decay levels are higher in local areas where deprivation is higher. Generally children from poorer families will suffer higher rates of dental decay than their ‘better off’ counterparts. It is therefore reasonable to assume that these children will need greater support in maintaining good oral health.

Read the full report on our dental health web page.

Get in touch

We’re always on the lookout for potential investment opportunities in good ideas. If you think you have a great idea that will improve the city or your community email DATAPlymouth@plymouth.gov.uk

Keep up to date

Keep up to date with how the projects are progressing by following us on Twitter @plymccplanning #DATAPlay

Get involved

For more information on how to get involved with our DATA Play days email DATAPlay@plymouth.gov.uk

News

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DATA Play 11 was a great success with discussions around the climate emergency and the environment.

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Save a new date for DATA Play 11

Published 24 February 2022
We’ve rescheduled DATA Play 11 to 7 April 2022 due to the coronavirus situation and on advice from Public Health.

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DATA Play 11: Climate emergency

Published 9 December 2021
Join us on 11 March 2022 for DATA Play 11 to look at how open data and technology can be used to help the climate emergency.

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Save the date for DATA Play 11

Published 8 December 2021
Join us on 11 March 2022 for DATA Play 11 to explore how data and technology can help the city’s challenges around the climate emergency.

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View the Plymouth Plan Annual Report

Published 23 July 2021
This annual report provides an overview of progress over the past year, for each of the different elements of the plan.

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Tune in tomorrow for the Climate Challenge live final

Published 2 December 2020
The top three projects will now be taking part in the LIVE final taking place on Thursday 3 December at 7pm…

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Join us for a Plymouth Climate Challenge live event

Published 26 September 2020
The top three supported projects will be awarded an additional £2,500 and be invited to the live event on Thursday 3 December…

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Progress on the delivery of the Plymouth Plan

Published 23 November 2020
We’ve added a new Plymouth Plan section with infographics to show our progress on the Plymouth Plan primary indicators…

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Competition time! Plymouth Climate Challenge LIVE

Published 24 September 2020
Plymouth City Council and Crowdfunder have teamed up to award £15,000 prize-funding to 10 climate emergency projects in the city…

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DATA Play 10 is here... looking back and forward

Published 1 November 2019
DATA Play 10 kicked off to a great start with some really interesting discussions around past and future challenges…

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