Dentists sick of extracting kids' rotten teeth after they've guzzled soft drinks are leading the charge to take the war on sugar up another notch.

The New Zealand Dental Association has the support of a raft of other health groups, including the Heart Foundation, for a seven-pronged push for change, which they're releasing this morning as part of its Consensus Statement on Sugary Drinks.

Spokesman Rob Beaglehole said one of the changes they are calling for is for packaging to show how many teaspoons of sugar are in each drink.

"You know, how many New Zealanders are aware that there's 16 teaspoons of sugar in a 600ml bottle of Coca Cola for example?"

Among the other changes they want are an excise tax, warning labels linking over-consumption to poor health.

They say there should also be a daily sugar allowance recommendation, tight regulation of marketing to children, and a national campaign along the lines of "Switch to Water".

They're also pushing for schools, childcare centres and council venues and events to have 'water-only' policies.

Dental Association spokesman Rob Beaglehole said a number of schools around the country already have 'water-only' policies, but they'd love to see it go nationwide.

"The analogy is why would we enable schools to sell tobacco to kids? Or why would we enable schools to sell alcohol to children? And of course, we are letting schools sell sugary drinks, and these sugary drinks are causing so much harm."