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A joint meeting of community health councils and Manchester Local Dental Committee (LDC) was told 50% of infants in north Manchester already has some tooth decay.

Experts believe this may be due to bottle-feeding and, because many adults cannot afford NHS fees and use dental services only in emergencies, so do their children.

National statistics collected on children aged five, eight and 12 show changing patterns of dental health based on the number of decayed, missing or filled teeth.

There was a sharp fall in dental decay among 12 year olds in the 1970s when fluoride toothpaste started being introduced but these are bottoming out.

Among five-year-olds there has been a recent peak in north Manchester with 60% showing signs of decay. Many have four or more decayed, missing or filled teeth at five when they have only 20 teeth in all.

The target set by the government for five-year-olds is to reduce tooth decay to an average of one bad tooth per child. The current average here is three.

LDC members said they see very few young children despite encouraging parents and for many their first visit is with toothache giving a very bad "first impression".

Dentists say half the levels of decay in very young children are linked to prolonged bottle-feeding and the use of sweetened drinks which can be tackled by giving more information to parents to change behaviour

Although LDC members supported water fluoridation it was not thought this would have any significant impact on tooth decay among infants and drives to reduce bottle-feeding would need to continue.