Improving oral health in Lanarkshire should be a priority for all of us.
At NHS Lanarkshire we have put a number of different initiatives and programmes in place to help our community in this area of health.
Childsmile is a national programme designed to improve children’s oral health and reduce oral health inequalities. The programme consists of three main elements:
Childsmile Practice - targets children from birth and promotes oral health improvement and prevention of decay from birth through primary care dental services and local community dental settings.
Every child in NHS Lanarkshire, born on or after 1 January 2005, can access Childsmile.
The dental team will provide advice and support on keeping your child’s teeth healthy and, as your child gets older, additional preventive care such as fluoride varnish and fissure sealants.
Childsmile Core Programme – involves the free distribution of oral health packs to every child in Scotland on at least six occasions during their first five years of life and free daily supervised toothbrushing to every three and four-year-old attending nursery.
Free daily supervised toothbrushing is also offered to children in schools within high priority areas.
The Nursery and Primary School Toothbrushing programme aims to:
- Deliver fluoride toothpaste to the enamel surface of the teeth to prevent tooth decay.
- Establish good habits from an early age.
- Teach children toothbrushing as a life time skill.
Childsmile Nursery and School targets children who may benefit from additional preventive care.
This additional care will take the form of twice yearly application of fluoride varnish to the teeth of children attending nursery and primary schools within high priority areas.
This part of the programme will start within NHS Lanarkshire during 2009/10.
For more information on Childsmile visit the Childsmile website or contact Susan Frew, Childsmile Co-ordinator on 01236 703453 or email susan.frew@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk.
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Nutrition and Oral Health for Childcare Providers
- Do you understand food labelling?
- Are you confident that you are offering children in your care healthy food in the correct portion size?
- Are you comfortable discussing healthy eating and oral health with parents and carers?
- What do you think childcare providers can do to reduce childhood obesity and tooth decay?
The nutrition and oral health of young children is fundamental to their physical, mental, social and educational development and wellbeing.
As part of a programme of activity to improve the diet and oral health of children, NHS Lanarkshire and partners have developed the Nutrition and Oral Health - Strategy into Practice for Childcare Providersand Nutrition and Oral Health - Strategy into Practice in the Early Years resources and are offering free online training to support their implementation.
The training is designed to complement the resources and has been developed to meet the needs of early years childcare providers and childcare providers caring for children older than five years, including out of school care services.
It provides factual information on healthy eating and oral health including; weaning; overweight and obesity, food labelling, portion sizes; practical advice for food, nutrition and oral health activities; and reflection on national policies and local strategies.
The training and resources are provided free by NHS Lanarkshire and are for all childcare providers working in NHS Lanarkshire area.
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By the age of 14, 68% of young people have some tooth decay in their adult teeth.
A teaching resource has been distributed to all secondary schools and will ensure that oral health is built into the health and wellbeing curriculum and as part of the Health Promoting Schools scheme.
On average adults have lost eight adult teeth and have 10 teeth with fillings. More than 25% of the adults in Scotland are not registered with a dentist.and unfortunately this percentage increases as people get older, even though some types of decay, gum disease and oral cancer are more common in older adults.
Supporting workplaces to involve oral health as part of the Healthy Working Lives award scheme is one of the ways to improve oral health in adults.
For more information on the above contact Celia Watt, Senior Health Promotion Officer on 01698 377621 or email celia.watt@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk.
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The Health Improvement Library is available to NHS Staff and the general public.
The library has a variety of visual resources that can be borrowed such as games, puppets, jigsaws, smoker's foul mouth model, teeth models, gammy gum models, large sand timers, visual information, leaflets, books and posters.
Oral health topic boxes are also available for hire. Contact:
Health Improvement Library
First Floor
Law House
Airdrie Road
Carluke
ML8 5ER
Telephone: 01698 377 600
Telephone: 01698 377 629(Leaflet Store)
Email: library.hp@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk
Opening Times/Staff
The library is available:
Monday - Friday from 9am - 5pm
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The Community Dental Services or Lanarkshire Salaried Primary Care Dental Services (SPCDS), complements the care provided by general dentists in Lanarkshire.
Working across Lanarkshire this service provides care in health centres, hospitals, and care homes and occasionally in your own home.
These services provide dental care for the groups in our community who have special requirements that make it difficult or inappropriate for them to receive treatment in the normal dental setting.
The types of patients treated by the community dental service include:
- Children with dental anxiety or with high levels of dental disease.
- Patients with learning disabilities.
- Patients with a range of physical and psychiatric conditions.
- Patients with complex medical issues impacting on their dental care.
- Frail elderly.
- Patients within palliative care.
Patients can be referred to the community dental service by general dental practitioners, general practitioners (GPs) and other healthcare professionals. Patients are seen by appointment, Monday to Friday.
The community dental service can be contacted at:
Dental Office
Glendoe Building
Coathill Hospital,
Hospital Street,
Coatbridge
ML5 4DN
Telephone: 01236 707 711
Dental care for homeless people
Community dental services run a service for all homeless people in Lanarkshire on Wednesdays from 6:30pm to 9:00pm.
To make an appointment contact the Health and Homeless service on 01698 727 534.
The service is located at:
Douglas Street Clinic
19 Douglas Street
Hamilton
ML3 0BP
Oral Health Educators
A team of oral health educators are employed to provide a service to each of the community health partnership localities in Lanarkshire.
These educators deliver the Childsmile core toothbrushing programme.
Through a variety of teaching sessions children, parents and staff are educated on all aspects of oral health and this is reinforced by staff in each establishment on a daily basis.
Additionally the oral health educators distribute the dental homecare packs, containing a toothbrush, toothpaste and an information leaflet to children in nurseries twice a year and to all primary one and two children once a year, delivering an oral health education lesson.
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Harry and Molly’s Adventures, is an oral health resource designed for primary school teachers. The resource aims to assist schools to address healthy eating and oral health in Primary 1 -3 age group as part of the Curriculum for Excellence.
The resource has three stories: Harry at the Zoo, Harry’s Holiday and Molly and the Magic Lunch box. Each animated story was developed by the NHS Lanarkshire Oral Health Education Team in 2009.
Following the publication of the curriculum for excellence NHS Lanarkshire, in partnership with North Lanarkshire Council, developed this accompanying teaching resource to assist education staff to use the stories as part of the health and wellbeing curriculum.
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