Highland Youngsters Have More To Smile About

Issued by NHS Highland

Pupils at selected primary and nursery schools in Inverness and Caithness will be the first in Highland to have their teeth painted with fluoride varnish as part of an exciting national oral health improvement programme called Childsmile.

The fluoride varnish was applied to the teeth of children attending Flippers Day Centre in Merkinch on Tuesday January 20 and the team carrying out the work in the north will be visiting North Primary School in Wick today (Thursday January 22).

Childsmile was launched in November of last year, when the focus was on helping families with newborn babies to learn the importance of good oral health, and this week sees the launch of the programme’s school and nursery phase, which is to be rolled out across the full NHS Highland area by 2011.

Specially trained Childsmile nurses will be going into schools and nurseries and applying a fluoride varnish to the teeth of children whose parents have consented to the procedure.

The youngsters involved are aged between two and six years and the fluoride will leave their teeth orange for a day or two, but the colour will soon disappear while giving additional protection from tooth decay.

Jennie Rawlins, who is Oral Health Improvement Coordinator for the North Highland Community Health Partnership (CHP), explained that consent forms were distributed to parents and they were given the opportunity to ask any questions or raise concerns at a consent meeting.

She said: “The Childsmile oral health support workers will arrange these sessions within the schools, attend consent meetings and provide further information, run the sessions on the day and ensure all the paperwork and administration is completed correctly.

“Aftercare instructions are given to children to take home and for parents to pass to the child’s dentist to let them know this has been done.”

Mrs Rawlins added that six schools in Caithness had agreed to take part in this phase of Childsmile. The team will also visit nurseries and playgroups from which children will go on to attend these schools.

She said: “We have oral health educators (OHE) who go into each nursery and school every school term to oversee the toothbrushing programme and ensure the staff training is up to date and that guidelines are strictly followed.

“The OHE also provide education and activities based on diet, toothbrushing, visiting the dentist and fluoride. This work links in with the Childsmile scheme as the children learn how important it is to look after their teeth well.”

Wick Councillor and Chairman of The Highland Council’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee, Bill Fernie said: “This is a great example of our schools and the health service working together to promote a key message that the young people will take with them for the rest of their lives.

“It could put the tooth fairy out of business, but it‘s good news for our children‘s teeth.”

Kirstin Edmiston, who is Oral Health Improvement Coordinator for the South East CHP, said: “Children in schools and nurseries taking part will be offered fluoride varnish twice a year.

“Painting fluoride varnish onto teeth has been consistently found to be more effective in preventing tooth decay than just toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste.”

The Childsmile van, with a cartoon of a smiling child’s face on the side, will enable the team to get out and about in the community to take the service to the people who need it.

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