Treating work colleagues to cake in the office should be abolished as it is leading to poor oral health, dentists have suggested.

Eating biscuits and cakes at work is also contributing to the nation's obesity epidemic, the Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS) said.

The FDS has called on "well meaning" managers to cut down on office 'cake culture'.

Professor Nigel Hunt, dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, said:

The FDS has issued the following tips for cutting sugar consumption:

Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, said: "Taking cakes and biscuits into the office at any time does your workmates no favours even if you offer them to be nice.

"The dental surgeons are correct when it comes to teeth but remember they have bariatric colleagues who operate on those who just can't turn down such things.

"Such food is neither a treat nor a reward. You may not know who in the office is secretly dieting, in which case they won't appreciate your gesture."