National award for charity that helps look after children’s teeth

National award for charity that helps look after children’s teeth

Super Smiles won the award for Best Community Initiative at the UK-based Oral Health Awards, a new ceremony which recognises the work of dental teams and individuals throughout the UK and Ireland. The awards recognised the charity’s work in promoting children’s oral health and education at primary schools and nurseries across the Island.

Sarah Pollard, a dental surgeon, and Caroline Wetherall, a hygienist, set up the charity five years ago in response to what they viewed as a ‘failure by the States’ to properly promote and support oral healthcare across the Island’s nurseries and primary schools.

Ms Pollard said the initiative, which involves educating pre-school children in oral health, as well as organising supervised teeth-brushing in primary schools, had been positively received by local schools and the support from local teachers had been ‘absolutely fantastic’.

She added that the standard of children’s oral health in Jersey could be ‘very hit and miss’, but added that she had seen ‘group tooth brushing’ even encourage some of the more reluctant children to brush their teeth more.

Ms Pollard has previously criticised the dental provisions made for children by the States, describing them as ‘inadequate and old-fashioned’.

The charity, which receives no States funding or support, has recently employed a full-time dental health educator and their daily brushing programme is currently carried out in three-quarters of Jersey primary schools.

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