School is smiles ahead!
Youngsters from Auchinraith Primary brushed up on dental health for a special visit.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney visited the Blantyre school to learn about the Childsmile programme.
It involves free daily, supervised tooth-brushing, the application of fluoride varnish and dietary and oral hygiene advice.
Mr Swinney visited with Health Secretary Jeane Freeman MSP to see the Childsmile programme in action within the school, including the additional support needs unit and associated nursery.
Head teacher Julie Mcculloch said: “We were delighted both Ministers visited Lanarkshire to hear about the progress we are making. Our staff deserve the highest praise for the way they work together with our partner agencies to achieve the best they can for all of our children.”
A new report shows that dental health across Lanarkshire is improving.
The encouraging signs were revealed in the recently published 2018 findings of the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP).
It showed that the percentage of primary one pupils across the county who had no obvious signs of tooth decay has increased by almost five per cent to over 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.
Such success is being attributed to the Childsmile programme. Anne Moore, NHS Lanarkshire’s clinical director of public dental services, 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 we are making.
“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 things 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.”
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “The Childsmile programme has resulted in significant improvements in children’s oral health across Scotland.
“Our aim is that every child has access to Childsmile and reducing inequalities in health is critical to achieving our aim of making Scotland a better, healthier place for everyone.”