Lanarkshire kids are smiles better

Dental health in Lanarkshire primary school children is improving.

The encouraging signs were revealed in the 2018 report of the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP).

It showed that the percentage of Primary 1 pupils across the county who had no obvious signs of tooth decay has increased by almost five per cent to more than 70 per cent since the last NDIP report two years ago.

This represents a leap of around a quarter since the first NDIP survey in 2003/04. The success is being attributed to the Childsmile programme, delivered via nurseries, schools and dental practices which involves free daily, supervised tooth-brushing, the application of fluoride varnish, and dietary and oral hygiene advice.

Anne Moore, NHS Lanarkshire clinical director of public dental services (PDS), said: “Childsmile is an increasingly successful oral health improvement programme which has helped dramatically reduce dental decay in Lanarkshire children. It does this by putting an emphasis on prevention rather than treatment and we’re pleased with the progress.

“When this programme started Lanarkshire had the lowest participation in Scotland, but we’re now comparable with the national average.

“However, we’re not settling for this and aim to improve further – particularly in Lanarkshire’s deprived communities which have higher levels of dental disease.

“It’s for this reason that a large focus of our work going forward will be supporting such communities.”