CHILDREN as young as three will be taught how to brush their teeth in school in a bid to improve Wales’ appalling dental health.
The first national oral health improvement programme, which will give children free toothbrushes and toothpaste, will be launched in Wales today.
A fleet of mobile dental units will tour more than 300 schools in two super-pilot areas in North and South Wales providing a range of dental care, in a bid to end the nation’s poor oral health record.
Children in Wales have the worst teeth in the UK – five-year-olds in Wales have an average of two to three missing, filled or decayed teeth.
Dentists have told the Western Mail that it is not unusual to have to fill three-year-olds’ rotten teeth, and in one shocking example it is understood that a child aged just 21 months had teeth removed under a general anaesthetic.
The £4.6m Assembly Government Designed to Smile scheme will see a team of dental health support workers providing toothbrushes and toothpaste to schoolchildren along with oral health advice.
Part of this service will be delivered via mobile dental health units that will play a key role in providing specialist preventative care and treatment to schools.
First Minister Rhodri Morgan said: “Rates of tooth decay are far too high in Wales given that it is almost a preventable disease
“This programme recognises that extra level of oral health problems we face in Wales.
“Through Designed to Smile we hope to extend the provision of preventative care and treatment to children in Wales, so that we can reduce the number of children with poor dental health to the UK average level and then to even lower levels.”
Health Minister Edwina Hart added: “This programme will help meet our One Wales commitment to provide a new public health focus on dentistry and ensure that children are given the tools and skills they need to maintain good oral health.”
The programme will be jointly run by the Community Dental Services of North Wales NHS Trust and Cardiff and the Vale NHS Trust.
Dr Menna Lloyd, programme lead for Cardiff and the Vale NHS Trust, said: “The Designed to Smile programme is a very welcome Assembly Government development and will enable the Community Dental Service to really make a difference by reducing dental decay levels in children.
“We have now appointed the Designed to Smile teams and they are already busily working in schools and with parent groups to get the message across that healthy teeth are important.”
Nursery children in parts of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff have already taken part in a pilot tooth-brushing programme in nursery schools.
Rebecca Lloyd, a dental health educator for Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, who has been working with three and four-year-olds at Meadow Lane Primary School in Cardiff, said: “The aim is to get fluoride on children’s teeth because some children do not brush their teeth at all.”
Stuart Geddes, director of the British Dental Association in Wales, said: “There is clearly much work to be done to improve the oral health of Wales’ children and this fleet of mobile dental units is a good way of taking oral health education messages to those who might not normally receive them.
“One of the key messages to get through is the importance of visiting a dentist regularly.
“Ensuring that there are adequate dentists available to treat all those who seek care is a further challenge, and this must also be addressed.”
Jan 30 2009 by Madeleine Brindley
Walesonline.co.uk
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