Kids in most deprived areas of Yorkshire will be taught to brush teeth at school
The national programme is being rolled out for 3 to 5-year-olds in early years settings – in the most deprived areas of England
Children in the most deprived areas of Yorkshire will soon be able to brush their teeth, supervised, at school.
The national supervised toothbrushing programme is rolling out in England for 3 to 5-year-olds in early years settings – including nurseries and primary schools.
This is being funded to the tune of £11.4 million, which will be allocated to local authorities across to deploy supervised toothbrushing in schools and nurseries that voluntarily sign up and is new money.
A total of £2.3m worth of that cash is for Yorkshire and the North East, with target areas including Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford
Ingrid Perry is Prevention Lead at My Dentist, a chain of surgeries with branches across Yorkshire:
"At the moment, it is quite a sad situation. We've got lots of children with high amounts of tooth decay, mainly in areas of deprivation" she said.
"It's been the same for many, many years, but the introduction of the supervised tooth brushing programme is an ideal opportunity to change this!"
Ingrid often visits schools: "Many of the children don't have their own toothbrush at home, they may share with a sibling,
"We have some families that have to make the decision of do they buy toiletries, or do they put food on the table.
"At least with a supervisee toothbrushing programme they're going to have regular access to fluoride toothpaste.
"My understanding is that there will be take home packs also for the children to be able to brush their teeth at home."
Ingrid understands what it is like to have poor dental hygiene when growing up: "I myself had poor oral health as a child. I came from a rather deprived background, I had a lot of general anaesthetic, and teeth extracted.
"Toothbrushing was not a priority in my household and we do find that this is the case in a lot of areas of deprivation."
Ingrid said providing the scheme will help the health of children but also save money for the NHS: "For providing tooth brushes and toothpaste, which might be £3 to £5 a child, a year, when you think of the amount of money which is spent on the NHS delivering care to these children, it's a no brainer...
"The important thing is to make the life chances of these children much better.
"We can instil good oral hygiene habits from a very early age, and then hopefully, when they have children themselves, that will continue so we're hopefully going to break the cycle of decay."