Childsmile The perfect smile is
child’s play T
Dental practices are urged to get involved with a government-supported programme aimed at improving children’s oral health in Scotland
he Childsmile pro- gramme got a £15 million thumbs up from health minister Shona Robison last month after it played
a key role in helping boost the number of children with no sign of tooth decay to record levels. The 2010 National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) found 64 per cent of Primary 1children have no sign of tooth decay, exceeding the government’s target of 60 per cent. And Childsmile has helped improve
oral hygiene by combining targeted and universal approaches through four components – Core, Practice, Nursery and School. The plan is that every child will have
access to a tailored programme of care within Primary Care Dental Services, which includes free daily-supervised toothbrushing in nurseries and free dental packs to support toothbrushing at home.
“With this funding we have scope to ensure Childsmile is even more
extensive” Peter King, West of Scotland Programme Manager
Children and families in greatest need will be given additional support at home and in the community. There will also be enhanced support within Primary Care Dental Services and clinical preventive programmes in priority nursery and primary schools, with children referred to dental services where needed. “While this programme is being further funded as a result of the ministerial announcement, the roll- out has been under way for a couple of years,” said West of Scotland Programme Manager Peter King. “With this announcement we have scope to ensure Childsmile is even more extensive.” There are a number of opportunities for dental professionals to get involved in the programme too, according to Peter. “Dentists can enroll their practice
to become a Childsmile establish- ment,” he said. “This will involve the
dental team taking referrals of children from health visitors, provid- ing toothbrushing and dietary advice and applying fluoride varnish.” Dental nurses also have the oppor-
tunity to become involved through the practice route, Peter added, working as part of the Practice team, or through involvement in the Nursery and School components. This will involve them working as an extended duties dental nurse (EDDN) applying fluoride varnish in a community setting on prescription from a dentist. However, the overall picture relies on multi-disciplinary working, especially so in relation to the School and Nursery elements. “Close partnerships with education
colleagues are vital to establish these services,” said Peter. “However, day- to-day delivery in each board is carried out by EDDNs working closely with education colleagues and dental health support workers (DHSW).
THE BENEFITS OF FLUORIDE VARNISH WITH PROF LORNA MACPHERSON (SDCEP) published
Lorna MacPherson, Professor of Dental Public Health and Childsmile Director for the West of Scotland
26 Scottish Dental magazine
Many scientific studies from around the world have shown that fluoride varnish is effec- tive in reducing the decay rate in children when used in addition to brushing teeth regularly with fluoride tooth- paste. A Cochrane Systematic Review (Marinho et al. 2002) confirmed the statistically significant caries-inhibiting effect of fluoride varnish. Fluoride varnish works in three ways: • it slows down the develop-
ment of decay by stopping demineralisation • it makes the enamel more resistant to acid attack (from plaque bacteria), and speeds up remineralisation (remineralising the tooth with fluoride ions, making the tooth surface stronger and less soluble) • it can stop bacterial metabolism (at high concen- trations) to produce less acid. The Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme
Prevention and Management of Dental Caries in Children in June 2010. It recommends twice yearly application of fluoride varnish in the dental practice setting to children aged two and over as part of standard prevention meas- ures for all children and an additional two applications a year either in practice or school/nursery for children deemed to be requiring enhanced prevention.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76