Whole school approach to oral health
Improvements in oral health, particularly for children, cannot be achieved solely by those providing dental services. They require a multi-faceted approach, involving other sectors within the NHS and other statutory agencies, such as education authorities, and by tackling the broader determinants of poor oral health such as diet and smoking.
The results of the consultation on children’s oral health provided evidence from a wide range of Scottish interests and have helped to inform the way forward towards improving children’s oral health in Scotland.
- People agreed on the central role of diet in oral health, good dietary habits should be established from the early years with home, school and community all playing a major part.
- Effective oral hygiene practice should be established at a young age, supervised by parents and carers.
- Schools should enable and facilitate good oral hygiene practice through the day with much support for extending free toothbrush and toothpaste schemes throughout Scottish schools.
- A wider range of measures could be implemented in schools to reduce the availability of unhealthy food and improve healthy options.
The role of schools
- Schools and shops were seen as contributors to poor oral health whilst having significant potential to combat the problem.
- Schools and communities have a major role in developing good dietary and oral health habits.
- Big improvements could be made to reduce the availability of sugary produce in schools and promote healthier diets.
To achieve sustainable oral health in our children requires co-operation and partnership across Scottish society.
The Scottish Executive consultation document ‘Towards Better Oral Health in Children’ sums up the situation as follows, ‘Despite some significant improvements, we still have unacceptably poor levels of oral health. Scotland’s children still have too many diseased teeth. Dental disease still results in extreme pain and discomfort, infection, social embarrassment and interrupted work and education for a significant part of the Scottish population.’
The document ‘Prevention and management of dental decay in the pre-school child’ (PDF file: Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network 83, November 2005) outlines the role of schools as follows:
Teachers, community workers and lay or peer educators can be effective in delivering health promotion interventions and their role should be considered in the development of oral health promotion programmes.
