This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Oral health takes to the road
20/03/2007
Dental staff will treat children in mobile dental facilities under The Childsmile (East) scheme to improve oral health that was officially launched today
Childsmile aims to ensure children from the age of three in the most deprived areas get improved dental care.
Participating children will be offered a fluoride booster for their teeth. Those without a dentist who require further care will be sent on to a local clinic.
The programme has already begun in Fife, with ten nurseries and several hundred children already taking part since January, and will also be developed in Tayside, Lothian, Borders, Forth Valley and Ayrshire & Arran NHS board areas.
Dental staff will visit nurseries and schools twice a year, using Childsmile-branded vans to carry equipment and to treat children when there isn't space in the school.
At Inzievar Nursery School in Fife, Deputy Health Minister Leiws Macdonald said:
"Childsmile (East) aims to make sure that we are getting good dental care to the children who need it most.
"We want to establish good dental habits at an early age and prevent tooth decay and this scheme is an innovative, and effective, way of doing this.
"We have already made significant improvements in children's oral health and last month, figures from the National Dental Inspection Programme showed that P1 children in Scotland now have the best oral health ever recorded, with 54 per cent showing no signs of tooth decay.
"I am confident that through schemes like the one I am launching today and through our continued expansion of toothbrushing schemes - which 90,000 children now take part in - that we will improve children's oral health even further."
The scheme will be evaluated over three years with a view to rolling it out across the rest of the country.
Dental hygienists currently carry out the treatment, but soon dental nurses will join them in what is the first scheme of its kind in the country.
Graham Ball, programme director of Childsmile (East), said:
"Childsmile is designed to improve the dental health of young children in Scotland. This is an innovative programme which will target those children who would most benefit from preventative care from an early age. It will build on good working relationships with local nurseries and schools and we hope that it will enable dental nurses to develop new clinical skills as they deliver the programme in the future."
Childsmile (West), covering Lanarkshire, Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Ayrshire & Arran, was launched by Health Minister Andy Kerr in September last year.