More than three in four Renfrewshire Primary 1 pupils now start school with no obvious tooth decay, according to new figures from Public Health Scotland.

The 2026 National Dental Inspection Programme, published on 27 October, found that an estimated 76.9% of P1 children in Renfrewshire had no obvious decay experience. The figure is based on detailed inspections of 367 local pupils, who were on average five and a half years old.

How Renfrewshire compares

Across Scotland, 76.0% of P1 children had no obvious decay, the highest level since the survey began in 2003. The average number of decayed, missing or filled baby teeth fell to 0.92, the lowest on record.

Across the wider NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, the figure was 72.7%, up 4.1 percentage points from 68.6% in 2024, though still below the Scottish average.

Within the health board area, Renfrewshire sits in the middle. Results for each health and social care partnership were:

  • East Dunbartonshire: 87.6%
  • East Renfrewshire: 85.2%
  • Renfrewshire: 76.9%
  • West Dunbartonshire: 73.9%
  • Inverclyde: 73.3%
  • Glasgow City: 64.6%

Renfrewshire P1 pupils had an average of 0.7 decayed, missing or filled teeth. Among the 87 inspected children who did have some decay, the average was 3.1 teeth. Public Health Scotland notes that the partnership-level results are weighted differently from the national figures, so the two aren't directly comparable.

The gap that remains

Nationally, the report shows a clear link between deprivation and children's teeth. In Scotland's most deprived areas, 62.0% of inspected P1 children had no obvious decay, compared with 87.3% in the least deprived areas. Every group has improved since 2008, with the biggest gains in the more deprived areas.

"No room for complacency"

Tom Arthur, MSP for Renfrewshire West and Levern Valley, welcomed the figures. He said: "This is genuinely encouraging news and a credit to children, parents, dental teams, schools and everyone involved in supporting good oral health from an early age."

He added that the Greater Glasgow and Clyde figure "remains below the Scottish average, so there is clearly more work to do and no room for complacency", and pointed to programmes such as Childsmile, along with free NHS dental check-ups for everyone in Scotland.

More than a million NHS dental appointments were provided to children across Scotland in the year to March 2026, and 74% of children had seen an NHS dentist in the previous two years.

Photo: Langcraigs Primary School, Paisley, by Richard Sutcliffe, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.