Oral Health
Tooth decay is a very common disease affecting one-third of young people aged 12-15 years, increasing to nearly one-half in young people living in areas of poverty.
Young people with tooth decay often complain of toothache, loss of sleep and problems eating — which can impact on their overall physical health and mental wellbeing, as well as increasing school absences.
Tooth decay, in most cases, can be prevented when children are motivated to improve their oral hygiene and snack options.
A number of Wiltshire Healthy Schools have sucessfully increased the number of students brushing their teeth twice a day.
New oral health lessons
This new lesson pack on oral health for secondary schools has been developed by a collaboration led by Prof. Zoe Marshman, Professor and Honorary Consultant of Dental Public Health at the University of Sheffield.
The resources have been awarded a Quality Mark from the PHSE Association and are available for teachers to access and download to share with Key Stage 3 students.
New initiative to tackle tooth decay in secondary school pupils | News | The University of Sheffield
BRIGHT dental health lesson pack (pshe-association.org.uk)
Early Years support
Supervised Tooth Brushing
A new scheme is currently being commssioned accross the South West.
Oral Health Promotion Team
The Oral Health Promotion Team is currently going through a transitional period, so we are very sorry that we cannot deliver virtual, or face to face sessions to schools or the Happy Smiles Award.
Here are some suggestions for lesson planning. We have designed and produced work books for all Key Stages which correspond to these lessons:
Key Stage 1
Puppets or stories with interactive resources, which introduce tooth brushing, diet and dental visits in a fun and interactive way.
Key Stage 2 (Years 3 & 4)
A session looking at teeth and their functions, charting teeth, diet and tooth decay finishing with a quiz and prizes.
Key Stage 2 (Years 5 & 6)
The process of decay, diet, reading food labels, recognising sugar contained in products. At the end of the session the students will have compiled a work book containing all the information.
Workbooks:
Dental health workbook 1 (year 2)
Dental health workbook 2 (year 3/4)
Dental health workbook 3 (year 5/6)
Kevin the tooth fairy (post visit parent leaflet)
Tilly the toot fairy (post visit parent leaflet)
Oral Health E- Learning Training Pack for Teachers
The Oral Health Promotion Team have produced training resources designed to give teachers some evidence based oral health information that will help to support oral health sessions or projects within the classroom.
If you would like a teacher training pack, send a request via email to: gwh.oralhealthpromotion@nhs.net
Contact
If you would like further information, please contact
The Oral Health Promotion Team
