£50k plan for supervised toothbrushing in Telford
A government grant of nearly £51,000 will be spent on helping to teach more children how to brush their teeth, a meeting will be told.
The Brilliant Brushers supervised toothbrushing scheme has been delivered by the Healthy Smiles Team at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust (Shropcom) since 2022, funded regionally by the NHS.
Earlier this year Telford & Wrekin Council was given £50,984 to after the Government announced plans to implement a national targeted supervised toothbrushing programme for children aged three, four and 5 years in the most deprived communities.
This week the council’s health and wellbeing board will be updated on how the Brilliant Brushers scheme is doing.
Officials are set to tell councillors at their meeting on Thursday that there is “strong evidence” that daily supervised toothbrushing in early years settings significantly reduces tooth decay, especially in more deprived communities.
“It is one of the most cost effective public health interventions in early childhood,” says the report.
The national oral health survey of five year old school children in 2023/24 indicated that 27 per cent of Telford and Wrekin children examined had dental decay.
Brilliant Brushers is designed for children aged three to five years in targeted early years settings, including day nurseries and mainstream schools. It is also available for ages 3 and above in SEND schools.
The scheme provides comprehensive staff training, regular monitoring and support and essential toothbrushing resources, enabling staff to supervise daily toothbrushing in a “safe, effective, and fun way”.
So far some 33 out of 54 Telford & Wrekin settings are participating in Brilliant Brushers, including 13 day nurseries, 19 mainstream schools and one SEND school.
Overall nearly 2,000 children are now brushing daily.
The report says that the Healthy Smile Team at Shropcom is “currently working at full capacity and will benefit from the grant funding to extend Brilliant Brushers in Telford and Wrekin.”
The one year grant of £50,984 is “expected to be recurrent”, says the report.
The extra cash will “allow the Brilliant Brushers supervised toothbrushing scheme to be offered to year one children in existing day nurseries and mainstream schools and to re-offer expansion in the most deprived areas.
The scheme also included toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Nationally the scheme is benefiting from a partnership with Colgate-Palmolive which will see more than 23 million toothbrushes and toothpastes donated to support the programme.
The government says the most common reason children aged five to nine being are admitted to hospital is to have treatment for decayed teeth.
The NHS says the rollout is expected to save it millions of pounds that would otherwise be spent on treating dental disease in children, including preventing hospital admissions that cost the NHS around £1,600 per person.
