By Dr Tom Owen

As a dentist who has spent my career treating children across the North West, some of the things I still see in clinic would stop anyone in their tracks.

The image that stays with me most is this: families sharing one toothbrush. Parents taking turns before school. Siblings using the same worn-out brush because it’s the only one in the house.

Children too embarrassed to smile because brushing their teeth has become a luxury they can’t afford.

This isn’t neglect. It’s poverty. And we make it harder every day by taxing the very basics children need to stay healthy.

Every children’s toothbrush and every tube of children’s toothpaste carries 20% VAT - a ‘tooth tax’ on the most fundamental tools of prevention.

For some of the families we’ve seen, that 20% really is the difference between giving a child a brush or going without. When every pound matters, VAT isn’t policy; it’s pain.

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