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Dental service launched in Fife school
03/12/2007
A school based preventative dental service was launched at a Fife primary school today.
Childsmile School will aim to free more children from dental decay through early intervention from dental care teams visiting primary schools to deliver oral health promotion, health education messages and initiatives like fluoride varnish.
Shona Robison said: "I am delighted to launch Childsmile School in Fife. For the first time specially trained dental nurses will be going into schools and providing clinical care to children. Childsmile School will also deliver a range of preventative care interventions for children in primary one and two to reduce the risk of dental decay.
"The initiative will expand to Tayside in early 2008 followed by health boards in the east of Scotland before a planned roll out across the country.
"Already there are promising signs of improvement in Scotland's child oral health. Fewer children than ever before now have tooth decay at age five and Scotland no longer has the highest number of children starting school (aged five) with dental disease either in the UK or Europe.
"But we cannot be complacent. When we know that dental decay is almost totally preventable we must take all necessary practical steps to support what parents are already doing at home to look after their children's teeth.
"I have been really impressed by what I have seen today and know that the enthusiasm of dental staff and the children involved in this project will make a real difference to the continuing improvement in child oral health."
- With parental consent children who enrol in the Childsmile School programme will initially be offered twice yearly applications of fluoride varnish which is painted on to their teeth by specially trained clinical dental nurse teams
- As the programme progresses other preventive treatments will also be available - including fissure sealants - protective plastic coatings on children's teeth which help prevent decay in older children
- The programme will identify any children who would benefit from a more detailed dental examination and possible further dental care. Every child who requires dental care will be offered this - either in mobile dental units or in local dental clinics
- Childsmile School is underpinned by an information system that will enable children to be monitored so that all can benefit from regular dental care
In the Dental Action Plan the national target states that by 2010, 60 per cent of five year olds (Primary one and Primary seven) will have no signs of dental disease.
The 2006 data from the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) published in February 2007 shows that 54 per cent of Primary one children were found to have no obvious dental decay experience. The 2005 NDIP data showed that 53 per cent of Primary seven children had no obvious dental decay.
This is a further improvement on the 51 per cent for the P1 age group in the 2004 results and the 45 per cent of Primary seven in the 2003 results. This is the best oral health results ever for this age group in Scotland and shows a continuous improvement since 1996.
Primary one children's oral health has been routinely measured every two years since 1988 in Scotland.