The Oral Health Unit carried out a Randomised Control Trial on 17,000 six-year-olds in St Helen's, Runcorn and Widnes - areas chosen because of the poor dental health among children and adults. NHS dentistry was freely available to children in these areas.
Dr Keith Milsom, operational director of the Unit, said that previously screening was thought to be 'well-meaning', but there was no evidence that it improved children's health.
Screening, the system where dentists visit schools and refer children for treatment, has taken place in England since 1918.
Dr Milsom said, 'The research demonstrates unequivocally that following school dental screening, dental health doesn't get better. The fact is it doesn't work. If screening didn't work in these areas then it wasn't going to work anywhere else.'
Children were followed up four months after screening. Results showed that only a quarter of children identified as having tooth decay in their permanent teeth went on to receive appropriate treatment, such as fillings.
Dr Milsom said, 'We could surmise the reason that six-year-olds didn't go to the dentist was because their parents didn't take them.'
Dental screening also failed to narrow the gap between the dental health of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who typically have higher levels of tooth decay, and children from more affluent backgrounds.
The Department of Health said last month that Primary Care Trusts must now consider whether or not to continue dental screening among children from six to nine years old in England and Wales.
Dr Milsom added that fluoridation in water could 'indisputably' reduce dental disease levels significantly.
, but whereas this was common in the 'the vast majority of cities' in the US, it is currently only available to around ten per cent of the population in England.
However, the Government has recently developed a framework to allow communities to decide if they want their water fluoridated, he added.
ends Dr Milsom said PCTs should now find another use for resources that have been freed up to do something more effective.
Careful to check that there wasn't an access problem to NHS dentists 'poorer in society more likely to have dental decay'
A lot of environmental factors, key one is diet Wanted to know if screening worked so did a baseline exam of children then screened a section of the population Children - enough time for children to have been treated - for example to find out if children who had four decayed teeth had the system worked - had they had fillings.
Research '
Fluoridation - only in ten per cent of UK? (England) - has been in Newcastle and Birmingham for 40 years Flouridation could 'indisputably' reduce dental disease levels significantly In US vast majority of major cities have fluoride in their water.
Government recently developed a framework to allow communities to decide eif they want their water floridated.
Toothpaste - should be more widespread use of toothpaste with higher levels of floride - should be 135001500 parts to a million of fluoride Some children's toothpastes only have 400 parts per million