Dental professionals team up with schools in Northamptonshire
Dental professionals in Northamptonshire are set to join forces with local schools to launch a programme to improve oral health.
The dental health team, known as the Smile Squad, will visit more than forty nurseries and schools in the North of the county. The team of professionals will provide educational, informal sessions for children and teach them practical skills, including how to brush their teeth properly. The programme will run over the course of the next three years and experts hope that children will benefit from the experience and standards of oral health amongst local children will improve.
The new scheme will also provide children with preventative fluoride treatments; fluoride varnish, which is applied to the enamel surfaces of the teeth, helps to strengthen the tooth and make it more resistant to both acid erosion and tooth decay. Children participating in the new dental programme will also be offered a free dental check-up.
The programme, which will cost around £67,000, is being funded by the Department of Health; if it is successful in the Kettering area, it may be introduced in other areas of the UK. Julie Barker, a senior nursery nurse at Acorns Day Nursery in Burton Latimer, said that the new scheme would make a huge difference to children in the area and believes that the programme will help to make teeth cleaning fun for children.
Children will get used to brushing their teeth on a daily basis and they will also become accustomed to seeing a dentist on a regular basis; many children do not see a dentist until they are at least four years old but dentists advise parents to try and take their children for check-ups on a regular basis from the age of twelve months. The scheme will enable children to have check-ups at school, which will make it easier for parents, as they will not have to arrange to have time off work.
Join this Discussion