Chertsey Posted February 8, 2016 Posted February 8, 2016 Hi, have any centres / settings had any luck with visits from dentists, data for my area shows that tooth decay in young children is a real issue. I've downloaded some resources from sparklebox etc but wondered if anyone else had any luck or ideas.
Stargrower Posted February 8, 2016 Posted February 8, 2016 We used to belong to Stop the Rot - a campaign to improve children's dental health, but I don't think it's running any more. We also had a visit from someone from the local Health Care Trust. She came to see us twice but she was not used to working with young children and it was actually aimed at primary aged children. Have you asked at your local dental practice? Or your local Health Authority/Trust? There might be someone who can either come and visit or give you some advice.
twinthinguk Posted February 9, 2016 Posted February 9, 2016 sorry to hijack this thread but I would like to know, how do you manage tooth brushing in your settings? do you store the brushes or do children bring in their own? how do you clean them? I want to start up a tooth brushing routine as we have more and more children staying all day at our preschool, I will need to know some ins and outs before trying to pitch it to the team thanks
GFCCCC Posted February 9, 2016 Posted February 9, 2016 We do not clean children's teeth at nursery. We are told by the dentist on the 'Dental education Bus' that visits us that children need to clean their teeth twice a day - preferably morning and night. He said we shouldn't do it at nursery for two reasons - one is because it is difficult to store the children's toothbrushes hygienically as we don't have time to rinse them all out properly after use and secondly because it is much more important to be supporting parents to do it regularly by providing support, encouragement and advice than it is to do it at nursery.
Foreveryoung Posted February 9, 2016 Posted February 9, 2016 If you contact your local NHS dental centre they should know If there is a scheme in your area. Our area currently gets funding each year in which a very lovely lady organises training for staff and parents she also provides new toothbrushes each term for every child (we take 2-5) and paste along with brush bus. She provided me with a decay chart for our la in Area decay was in top 3, we started brush club in November and it is going fantastically well! It's not about cleaning the teeth it's getting the flouride in contact with the teeth, our training was fantastic and was ashamed to say I've been brushing wrong all my life! Parents liked there training session too. We only open for 2 full days per week others are half days so we only do brush club twice a week. We do it in group after lunch (after 30mins) children sit in group and each child gets there named brush with paste on, we then put our visual timer on the screen and off we go. Pea sized amounts are dispensed onto a plate and put on brush, after each brush is rinsed and put in the bus to air dry. We incorporate lots of maths into the group along with social skills, children reportedly go on about the two mins at home so it's having an impact on home health. If I could say we was not In a high area of decay then would I do it probably not but in our area the decay is so high and many of ours don't brush at all at home. If we can help even just a little by getting some protection to the teeth then I'm happy, we introduced a sugar board and water only policy at same time so it was delivered from all angles
lsp Posted February 9, 2016 Posted February 9, 2016 Yet again different information given in different area. Gfcccc told not to do it, Foreveryoung told to do it after lunch and 2 weeks ago we were told to do it 30 min before lunch???? One question - how do you find time to do this. How long does it take?
sunnyday Posted February 9, 2016 Posted February 9, 2016 (edited) Hi, have any centres / settings had any luck with visits from dentists, data for my area shows that tooth decay in young children is a real issue. I've downloaded some resources from sparklebox etc but wondered if anyone else had any luck or ideas. Oh dear - I can see that I am going to gain something of a reputation here :blink: please research sparklebox and decide for yourself whether or not this is an appropriate site to use.......... In answer to your query we have had a super dental hygienist visit our pre-school - this used to be backed by our LA - but sadly cut backs have put an end to this........... Edit to say - a warm welcome to the forum - I hadn't noticed that was your first post :1b Edited February 9, 2016 by sunnyday
Foreveryoung Posted February 9, 2016 Posted February 9, 2016 Yet again different information given in different area. Gfcccc told not to do it, Foreveryoung told to do it after lunch and 2 weeks ago we were told to do it 30 min before lunch???? One question - how do you find time to do this. How long does it take? Oh sorry we have been advised teeth should always be done either 30 mins before or 30 mins after food! so your advice is same as ours really. We looked at what we do and how to feasibly fit it in within our setting and we choose the 30 min after as this best fitted our current children. We have always done afternoon register anyway so going into group was being carried out anyway but now its a quick roll call and straight into brushing. Its all done sat in group, takes a minute to hand out brushes, 2 mins brushing (obviously lol) and then collecting brushes - it takes hardly anytime and we was keen to not make it a boring task quickly done and sorted yet with a valuable educational input. I have some papers somewhere from training about it that i can scan in (i think) we did a letter out to parents saying why we was doing it and how it would work with a start date, we did a policy too that was attached to the letter - covers hygiene, staff wont brush childrens teeth etc. At the same time we spoke with the children about what we was going to be doing and started talking about oral hygiene and playing games with props related to it such as kims game but with a clock, number 2, toothbrush, apple, chocolate, paste etc and then we would incorporate talk around each object - preparing the children. we dont say no chocolate but just a little bit is ok, as we dont want them to feel its bad. We used google and pintrest to do a sugar drink display and toothbrush display (we have HENRY Project) this impacted on parents alot. The date came and we started and it was so easy to implement
lsp Posted February 9, 2016 Posted February 9, 2016 We have the dental hygienist booked in to do session with children and parents. We are going to do healthy lunchbox display and sugary drinks, breakfast cereal etc. Like your kims game idea.
Chertsey Posted February 10, 2016 Author Posted February 10, 2016 We used to belong to Stop the Rot - a campaign to improve children's dental health, but I don't think it's running any more. We also had a visit from someone from the local Health Care Trust. She came to see us twice but she was not used to working with young children and it was actually aimed at primary aged children. Have you asked at your local dental practice? Or your local Health Authority/Trust? There might be someone who can either come and visit or give you some advice. Thank you for your response, will try the local dentists again. Our outreach worker hit a wall when we tried before, will also see if there is a health lead, thanks again.
Chertsey Posted February 10, 2016 Author Posted February 10, 2016 Thanks everyone. We use sparklebox for display only, i.e home corners / role play areas. We are a children's centre so wouldn't be able to incorporate a "brushing routine" and as already said, storage and hygiene would be an issue. We do deliver HENRY which is always beneficial for parents and carers. Thanks everyone for your useful hints & tips.
sunnyday Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 Thanks everyone. We use sparklebox for display only, i.e home corners / role play areas. We are a children's centre so wouldn't be able to incorporate a "brushing routine" and as already said, storage and hygiene would be an issue. We do deliver HENRY which is always beneficial for parents and carers. Thanks everyone for your useful hints & tips. Thank you - don't want to go on and on about this (or do I :rolleyes: ) but seriously, please check out sparklebox - you might just decide against it :1b
louby loo Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 Thanks everyone. We use sparklebox for display only, i.e home corners / role play areas. We are a children's centre so wouldn't be able to incorporate a "brushing routine" and as already said, storage and hygiene would be an issue. We do deliver HENRY which is always beneficial for parents and carers. Thanks everyone for your useful hints & tips. Could I please second sunnyday about doing your research on sp....bx. As a CC I am quite surprised you can use it. We where told not to use by our LA. 1
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