Dental Health: Children

Jim ShannonShadow DUP Spokesperson (Human Rights), Shadow DUP Spokesperson (Health)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to encourage children to brush their teeth daily.

Steve Brine The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care

Local authorities are responsible for providing or commissioning oral health promotion programmes locally. When asked in a recent survey 51% of responding local authorities’ programmes include supervised tooth brushing in early years and school settings; and 46% reported targeted provision of toothbrushes and toothpaste, further results can be found via the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/707180/Oral_health_improvement_programmes_commissioned_by_local_authorities.pdf

These activities are explicitly supported by Commissioning Better Oral Health a toolkit produced by Public Health England (PHE) and a toolkit supporting supervised tooth brushing programmes in early years settings. The report can be accessed via the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321503/CBOHMaindocumentJUNE2014.pdf

‘Delivering Better Oral health – an evidence-based toolkit for dental teams’ recommends that all children brush twice daily with fluoride toothpaste, this can be accessed via the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/605266/Delivering_better_oral_health.pdf

PHE’s health campaigns such as Change4Life, give advice on oral health which includes support for twice daily tooth brushing.