Teeth

Promoting good oral health in early years

Promoting good oral health is important in supporting children and young people to achieve their full potential in education and being fully prepared to live happy, healthy, independent and prosperous adult lives.

In Worcestershire twenty percent of children enter school with evidence of decay. This is largely preventable; messages of oral health need to be integrated with lifestyle advice to ensure greatest health gain. There are significant opportunities to influence this in the school environment through encouraging healthy lifestyles.

Initiatives for schools to support good oral health

The Oral Health Foundation's resource, Dental Buddy is already used to promote dental health in hundreds of UK schools and early years settings.

During the Early Years (3 to 5 years), whether it’s their first tooth, or their visit to the dentist, a child’s early experiences of oral health can impact on the rest of their lives. To help you with planning your lessons, the Oral Health Foundation has developed a range of new resource named including one for EYFS.  For early years, the overarching aim is to help young children achieve the five ‘Every Child Matters’ outcomes of staying safe, being healthy, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution, and achieving economic wellbeing.