Onslaught on children’s oral health is underway
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- Published: Wednesday, 18 July 2018 07:48
- Written by News Editor
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A comprehensive resource pack is now freely available to promote prevention in 0-2s. Created under the SMILE4LIFE banner, with resources from a range of sources and organisations, it provides information to parents and carers in order to reduce the high burden of dental decay in children across England.
The pack has been circulated to Local Dental Networks and has been warmly welcomed by the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry. President Claire Stevens commented: “So many of us have been working to turn the tide on the ridiculously high number of general anaesthetics for multiple extractions in children. Now that this new pack giving online access to educational posters and leaflets is available to all dental practices, the onslaught against dental decay can really begin.”
“For too long, primary care dentists in England have been disadvantaged when compared to colleagues in Scotland, where there is the Childsmile programme and colleagues in Wales, where there is the Designed to Smile programme. Now the Chief Dental Officer, England, has delivered on her commitment to Starting Well Core, the dental access and prevention programme for 0-2s, and we are really grateful for her leadership.”
Claire said that the strength of the Starting Well Core initiative is that it is taking the best of existing resources, such as BSPD’s Dental Check by One campaign (see attached poster), Public Health England’s Change 4 Life programme and Manchester’s Baby Teeth do Matter e-learning package, and making them available nationally.
In addition to resources directed at patients, the pack contains educational material and evidence-based links for dentists and their teams. Each pack is different with dental health statistics which relate to the local area so dental teams know the challenge they are up against.
Claire continued: “Dental Practices which want to work to reduce dental caries in children should find they have a rich supply of resources. We are also delighted to know that wider health and social care networks are also going to be sent some of the resources in the coming weeks.”
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