Early year’s dental health is one focus for Support from the Start in Whitecraig and Wallyford. Part of this focus is to examine the current and ongoing dental health status of all three year olds in these areas.
Following detailed dental inspections carried out earlier this year on 3-year-old children seen at Whitecraig and Wallyford 33% of children were found to be affected by tooth decay.
These findings confirm that, although the majority of children have as yet no experience of caries, for some children the presence of dental caries is already well-established by the time they reach three years of age.
What is being done locally to address this issue?
- Local nurseries are getting an extra morning each for dental health promotion with new materials (see example above) and information packs for children and parents available.
- Tooth varnishing has been rolled out in the targeted areas allied with encouragement to enrol with a dental practice.
- There is additional dental health promotion work underway in playgroups and toddler groups and tooth brushing schemes in P1&P2
- Local dental practices are being encouraged to become Childsmile practices.
