Nursery toothbrushing saves ?6m in dental costs

[Northerner]

A scheme to encourage nursery children to brush their teeth has saved more than ?6m in dental costs, according to a new study.

Childsmile involves staff at all Scottish nurseries offering free supervised toothbrushing every day.

Glasgow researchers found that the scheme had reduced the cost of treating dental disease in five-year-olds by more than half between 2001 and 2010.

The programme was launched in 2001 and costs about ?1.8m a year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24880356

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Erm hello surely that is a parents job to supervise and teach their children how to brush their teeth? 🙄

 

[Northerner]

Erm hello surely that is a parents job to supervise and teach their children how to brush their teeth? 🙄

Indeed! (Depending on how well the parents have looked after their teeth! 😱)

Actually, I was taught how to brush my teeth properly at the age of about 38. I went to a private dentists to treat an abcess and they had a dental hygienist there who taught me some little techniques abut how to get into the hard to reach places that I'd probably always neglected. My current dentist always comments on how well I clean my teeth these days! 🙂

 

[Hanmillmum]

I seem to recall it is quite a problem in Scotland with childhood "dental caries", I think there was an issue of late attendance at dentists after problems had started rather than preventative checks from being babies/infants.

 

[trophywench]

Gosh, mums are sposed to take their infants to have a ride in the magic chair, aren't they?

But there again if mum doesn't go herself - and Lord knows, it's expensive to walk through the door for a lot of us. But there again if you are a bit deprived dental treatment comes free with certain SS Benefits so 'deprived' mums don't have any excuse! Infuriates me that they don't even take the kids for whom it's totally free anyway however much parents earn or not.

Aaaarrgghh !