Smarter Smiles
Cornwall’s Oral Health Programme
Smile Together, working in partnership with Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise and Cornwall Council’s Public Health team, creates fun and engaging environments for promoting good oral health and tackling preventable tooth decay across Cornish communities.
Our dedicated Smarter Smiles outreach team of trained clinicians and oral health educators regularly engages with:
- Children in schools and early years settings
- Children and older adults in care facilities
- Children and adults with special needs
- Those experiencing homelessness
- Travellers
- Drug and alcohol misusers
- People from ethnic minority backgrounds
According to the needs of each group, we deliver information and advice on oral health, healthy eating, alcohol consumption and smoking, and signpost to practical oral health information about tooth brushing, the benefits of fluoride, sugar-free medicines and so much more.
Together we’re encouraging individuals to make positive and sustainable behaviour changes to improve their long term oral health and well-being.
Fit & Fed
Plymouth City Council coordinates a city-wide holiday activity and food programme during the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays to primarily support families with children who receive benefit related free school meals.
The programme also offers funded places to Looked After Children, Children with Education, Health Care Plans, Foster Children, Young Carers, children of recognised refugees and children from asylum seeking and Ukrainian families, Children under Child Protection Plans and Children who are Home Educated, who would be eligible for Free School Meals if they were in school.
The Dental Outreach Team take the ‘Open Wide Step Inside’ gang out on tour to the Fit and Fed sessions to introduce parents, carers and children to the importance of brushing well and looking after our mouths. Families get to take part in a variety of fun ‘Open Wide Step Inside’ themed activities and go home with a brushing pack including a toothbrush and toothpaste. We are proud to partner Plymouth City Council in this initiative.
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Widening Horizons
Working in partnership with Millfield’s Inspired, we are delighted to be able to offer local Primary schools the opportunity to visit the Dental Education Facility.Widening Horizons is an innovative programme developed by the Millfield’s Trust which is delivered to the seven local primary schools located within the Stonehouse neighbourhood of Plymouth.It is designed to enable students to explore the world of work and help to inspire them to think about different careers choices. It also allows them to think about the importance of education and how it will influence their working life after full time education.We welcome the children into the dental education facility by breaking down any barriers they may have within a dental environment.Using hands on activities, the children are encouraged to use the phantom heads to simulate dental procedures, and complete tasks such as hand hygiene, sugar smart and recognising oral health messages.
Torbay Open Wide & Step Inside
We were approached by Torbay Council Public Health to deliver the Open Wide & Step Inside programme to 31 Primary schools In the Torbay area.Each school received a 45 minute interactive oral health session to their Year 2 pupils including a 15 minute animated film about Geoffrey the Giant and his adventures about going to see Daisy the Dentist.The programme is also accompanied by home packs for the children and teachers resources
First Dental Steps (Dental Check By 1)
Working with NHS England South West Healthcare, Public Health, we have been successful in delivering Oral Health Training to all Health Visitor localities across the South West.Initially this was done face to face in individual areas, however now that all areas have received training, we are able to deliver remotely for update training and new staff.The training consists of basic oral health information including diet and drinks, toothbrushing, Fluoride and how to engage parents.The aim of this project is to help Health Visitors to promote the national campaign, Dental Check By 1. This national guidance is available to parents who are encouraged to arrange a dental check up for their child by their first birthday.
Supervised Toothbrushing programme (Pilot)
Working in partnership with Well Connected, we ran the 4-year Pilot programme for NHSE (2019-2023)This involved communication and training over 400 Primary schools and Nurseries across Devon. Each setting received oral health training and all the resources they needed to allow the children in pre-school and reception to brush their teeth each day.Annual audits were completed to ensure compliance with cross infection control and health & safety.The programme was very well received by schools and early years settings.