Provision of Oral Health Improvement: Supervised Toothbrushing Programme in Primary Schools

The Supervised tooth brushing programme is aimed at children attending primary schools in areas of deprivation, experiencing poorer oral health. The tooth brushing activity will take place in the school setting they attend. The main aims of the programme are to reduce the prevalence of tooth decay, hospital admissions for dental caries and reduce health inequalities in children. The objectives and related outcomes are: To develop healthy habits from a very young age (life course approach), To increase children’s willingness to brush their teeth, To improve children’s toothbrushing technique, To encourage daily application of fluoride toothpaste to teeth which reduces the incidence and severity of tooth decay in children, To encourage support for home brushing, To establish life-long behaviour in children to promote oral health, To reduce the negative impact of poor oral health, To increase and promote intergenerational understanding of good oral health to children & families, To provide quality information, advice and training to school staff, To increase community resilience and improve understanding and ownership of personal health and wellbeing from a very young age, To increase awareness on healthy eating and sugar consumption in food & drinks, To prevent childhood overweight and obesity, To develop links with other local services and organisations to provide an integrated approach to oral health provision. (see service specification for more details).