The winners of the 2023 Max Horsnell Travel Award and National Student Elective prize are announced today by the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD).  These annual awards recognise vision and endeavour in the field of paediatric dentistry. These BSPD prizes are awarded each year following a judging process for both that is overseen by three members of BSPD’s Conference Abstract and Prize Committee (CAPC).

There are two winners of the Max Horsnell Travel Award. BSPD established this travel bursary to support members (excluding consultants and equivalent academic grades) who wish to present a poster or oral communication at scientific meetings of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry or the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry. An award of £500 is given towards travel costs to relevant dentistry conferences per annum.

Jasmine Cachia Mintoff joint-winner of the BSPD Max Horsnell Travel Award 2023: 

Jasmine Cachia Mintoff from East Surrey Hospital submitted the winning paper entitled: What’s On Your Mind! A survey to explore the impact of specialty training on the mental health of trainees in paediatric dentistry.  Her presentation showed that training pressures have a negative effect on the mental health of trainees and that further support and interventions were necessary to tackle bullying.

Fiona Sotir

Fiona Sotir joint-winner of the BSPD Max Horsnell Travel Award 2023:

Fiona Sotir from the University of Sheffield submitted the winning paper entitled: Blending health and design: better healthcare technology through co-design with children and young people.  The objective of her presentation was to show the value of co-design approaches for health technologies. Two case study projects illustrated valuable engagement from young people and a need to adopt these approaches more frequently.

Rosa Donaldson winner of the BSPD National Student Elective Prize 2023: 

This competition was open to BSPD student members who are intending to undertake an elective project within the year. Students submitted a summary of a maximum of 250 words, describing their proposed elective project involving the dental health of children. The winning student will have to submit a short report on their elective project once completed. One award of the value of £300 is given for the National Student Elective Prize to support the student’s elective project.

Rosa Donaldson from University of Glasgow submitted the winning elective project entitled: Avulsion first Aid – Can Routine Management Advice Make a Difference?

Rosa Donaldson

Chair of the BSPD Conference Abstracts and Prizes Committee, Dr Chris Vernazza, said: “The standard of the Max Horsnell entries was particularly high this year. For BSPD, being able to support our paediatric dentistry colleagues is crucial, so Jasmine’s ‘What’s on your mind?’ initiative was full of valuable insights. Then from Fiona’s submission, the BSPD judging panel were impressed with the drive to co-design with children and young people for better health technologies.  At the Society we know that co-creation is important to ensure that everything we produce is fit for purpose – for children. We were impressed to see energy and drive to support children’s oral health shown by both winners.

“We were also impressed with the standard of the submissions for the National Student Elective Prize. The applicants showed ambition to improve oral health outcomes for children and we anticipate exciting careers in paediatric dentistry ahead for all!”

Dr Jenny Harris, President of BSPD joined a group of supporters of the ‘Free School Meals for All’ campaign outside Downing Street today. The ‘No Child Left Behind’ group responsible for the ‘Free School Meals for All’ initiative delivered its open letter, signed by BSPD’s President on behalf of the Society, calling for an extension of free school meals to all children in primary schools in England. Primary schools in England do not currently receive funding for ‘Free School Meals for All’ – despite the scheme being announced in Scotland, Wales and most recently in London as part of a one year scheme to support families with the cost of living crisis. 

The open letter, signed by more than 240 community organisations, faith groups, charities and trade unions, and over 90,000 individuals, came on the penultimate day of the Free School Meals for All campaign’s National Week of Action (24-30 June), which has a series of local and national events and activities. The Free School Meals for All campaign is supported by nearly 90 MPs, Peers, local councils and mayors, who are putting their weight behind the call to ensure no child goes too hungry to learn at school.

Mrs Jenny Harris, President of BSPD, said, “BSPD supports the ‘Free School Meals for All’ campaign because day-to-day, our paediatric dental colleagues see the impact poor diet has on children’s health and wellbeing.  We know that a good nutritious meal at lunchtime helps children to get the most out of their school day.  Being healthy, and that includes having good oral health, allows children to enjoy both their studies and their playtime.

“At BSPD we have recently focused on children’s rights. To fulfil the right to reach their potential requires all children to have access to healthy nutritious food.  We need the Government to support this right by giving free school meals for all primary school children in the UK.”

Launching today (9 June 2023), BSPD’s new ‘Rights from the Start’ initiative will shine a spotlight on children and young people’s rights. Mrs Jenny Harris, President of BSPD and Consultant in Community Paediatric Dentistry, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is launching BSPD’s children’s rights initiative in the UK to drive better awareness amongst dental professionals when seeing paediatric patients. At the centre of this initiative, is a fact sheet outlining these rights according to The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Carrying endorsements from the British Dental Association (BDA) and the NSPCC, the fact sheet, which can also be used as a poster, was co-developed with support from the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Child Friendly Cities & Communities programme.

The aim is to bring clarity for professional colleagues in dentistry, and beyond – to anyone who works with children and young people – so that they can feel confident in their understanding of the rights that they must uphold for the youngest in our society.

Printed versions of the fact sheet are being issued with the British Dental Journal (BDJ) in June with the suggestion that dental practices may want to use them to prompt discussion amongst their teams or to put them up as posters on a staff noticeboard. Jenny has written an opinion article to accompany the fact sheet which will also appear in the BDJ issue out on 9 June 2023.  This article in the journal explores the implications for clinical teams.

Additional support for BSPD’s Rights from the Start initiative

In addition to the BDA, NSPCC and UNICEF UK, BSPD is delighted to have further support of the Rights from the Start messaging from the following organisations:

1. British Association of Dental Nurses (BADN)
2. British Association of Dental Therapists (BADT)
3. British Orthodontic Society (BOS)
4. British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy (BSDHT)
5. British Society for Oral & Dental Research (BSODR)
6. British Society of Special Care Dentistry (BSSCD)
7. Global Child Dental Fund (GCDF)
8. Society of British Dental Nurses (SBDN)

Mrs Jenny Harris, President of BSPD and Consultant in Community Paediatric Dentistry, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who conceived the Rights from the Start initiative said, “It’s crucial that inequalities in children’s oral health at a population level are tackled and tackled fast. Change is needed soon. Children desperately need far-reaching solutions to uphold their right to the best dental care possible. We are, as yet, a long way off that.

“But there are also things we can do in our day-to-day clinical practice to respect and uphold individual children’s rights. That’s what I have focused on in my article in the British Dental Journal – things like providing information children can understand, listening to their views and supporting them to make decisions.”

Dr Fiona Gilchrist, Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Dentistry at The University of Sheffield, who chaired the organising committee for BSPD’s 2022 children’s rights-themed conference in Sheffield said, “We have a duty to advocate for children to have equitable access to dental services – including specialist care if required and treatment under general anaesthesia when that is the best option. It is a child’s right, but at the moment it is little more than a postcode lottery whether these things are available locally.”

Eddie Crouch, Chair, BDA said, “A healthy start in life is a fundamental right for all young people, and oral health is too often the missing piece. From the outset, the British Dental Association (BDA) have supported BSPD’s important work on Rights from the Start.  This profession has a key role to play, to come together to support and uphold these rights.”

Sarah Handley, Child Friendly Cities & Communities Programme Manager, UNICEF UK, said, “Oral and dental care professionals play a vital role in helping to uphold human rights for all children. Taking a child rights-based approach to oral and dental health means ensuring not only that children and young people have equitable access to good quality healthcare, but that they are able to actively participate in decisions that affect them, and that their best interests are at heart.  We welcome this initiative from BSPD and are very pleased to support it.”

Mrs Catherine Simmons, practice owner at Moreton Road Dental Practice, Oxford said, “I am always looking out for interesting topics for our weekly team meetings. We’ve never looked specifically at children’s rights before, so the poster and article will be ideal to start a discussion and think through what it means for our patients.”

BSPD’s Outstanding Innovation Award for 2023 has gone to Armaana Ahmad, Specialist in Paediatric Dentistry at Whittington Health NHS Trust, for leading a Paediatric Dentistry Advice Clinic (PDAC) initiative to create a virtual dental clinic.  This project, initiated during the pandemic and further developed subsequently, is supported by a team including Labina Rahman, Whittington Health CDS Senior Dental Officer and Alexandra Lyne, UCLH Consultant.  The PDAC model has transformed the Whittington’s Community Dental Service’s ability to enable every child in their catchment of NorthWest and North Central London to get timely access to specialist-led dental care.

An innovative, efficient and convenient model

Armaana’s winning initiative is a collaboration between the Whittington Health Community Dental Service (WCDS) and the UCLH paediatric dental department offering an innovative pathway to provide efficient access to specialist advice for all patients through an online Paediatric Dentistry Advice Clinic. The team took on the challenge of creating an entirely new model that now means children no longer need to travel to get expert-led treatment plans for complex cases.  By creating this innovative virtual clinic model, the PDAC ensures patients get optimal treatment, more quickly than they would traditionally be able to be seen – and all without necessitating the cost, logistics and environmental impact of travelling outside their community.

The PDAC was initially held as three pilot clinics that have since been running for a further 12 months. Currently the PDAC has patients booked into a morning clinic split into three one-hour sessions. Dentists from each of WCDS’s three area teams log on via a virtual meeting hub for their session. 

Upskilling dental teams through complex case training

On average the clinic can review ten patient cases each hour, with the community dental officer (DO) presenting each patient’s case.  The discussions focus on a recommended treatment plan, as well as serving as a teaching opportunity. The subsequent discussion, in what Armaana describes as a ‘safe-space’ for asking any question whether it is simple or complex – opens up a forum for in-depth on-the-job, real-time training – for all levels of dental professionals who are part of the clinics.  Patients and families are not present and therefore no definitive treatment decisions are made, but key oral health concerns and the recommendations are discussed afterwards with the family.

Armaana’s prize will include the opportunity to give a talk about the PDAC initiative at BSPD’s 2023 conference in Newcastle in September.

Mrs Jenny Harris, President, BSPD said: “The entries to this year’s BSPD Outstanding Innovation Awards were particularly inspiring. During the judging process we were especially impressed with the concept of the ‘safe space’ that Armaana had created.  Having this connection with the Consultant means that the CDS teams feel supported to deliver this level of care.  We also noted the multiple benefits of the clinic that not only allow more patient cases to be reviewed and treatments planned more quickly, but they also serve as excellent training grounds for developing dental professionals. 

“We were delighted with Armaana and her team’s initiative that showed how some of the necessary ways we adopted to navigate our practices during the pandemic could be developed and enhanced once the crisis was over. I look forward to seeing how the PDAC initiative can be embraced in other areas of the UK. Congratulations to Armaana and the team!”

Armaana Ahmad, Specialist in Paediatric Dentistry at Whittington Health said:  “Our PDACs are not only beneficial to patients whose cases can be reviewed more quickly – but the virtual clinics are so good for learning too.  The team discussions mean that each dental professional is  benefiting from the insights from others’  cases. It was also important to create a friendly environment where individuals can freely ask for consultant advice. Feedback from dental colleagues has been that the PDAC system has completely changed their services and made their clinical work more satisfying. The range of cases being reviewed is more complex than usual, so participants feel that their clinical skills are being developed.  I see a future for PDAC in having one in every community by creating a ‘hub and spoke’ model with nearby hospitals and consultants.”

OIA 2023 highly commended award

Rachael Nichol

In addition, Rachael Nichol, Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Community Dental Service has been awarded highly commended for her Paediatric Dentistry Level 2 complexity care training programme in Yorkshire and the Humber which aims to support children and young people to access quality care nearer where they live, especially in areas of high dental need and health inequality. The aim of the on-line programme is to develop and up-skill practitioners enabling an enhanced level of paediatric dentistry care to be undertaken as part of a specialist-led managed clinical network. The training of level 2 practitioners will improve accessibility of oral health care for children and young people by allowing them, where appropriate, to access quality care closer to home.

About the highly commended award, Mrs Jenny Harris said: “Rachael’s Paediatric Dentistry Level 2 complexity care training programme is an initiative of significant importance that is the first of its kind in England.  We would love to see how it develops and how it could be replicated in other regions.”

In coming to their decision, the OIA judges recognised both Armaana and Rachael’s dedication to addressing real needs. They are excellent examples of how the dental profession can embrace new ways of working and training learned through the pandemic – and turn them into lasting benefits for both patients and clinicians for the future.

The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) welcomes the insights and recommendations outlined in a new book called ‘Oral Health Psychology’. The book is an international collaboration between dentists and psychologists who draw on scientific research as well as their personal experiences in clinical practice. Published by Springer in November 2022, this academic and practical textbook has been written by a team from Norway and The Netherlands with contributions from Paediatric Dentists and Psychologists from the University of Sheffield.

‘Oral Health Psychology’ describes a patient-cantered approach to communication, preventive dentistry, dental anxiety and dental care in a range of patient groups. Chapters of particular interest to Paediatric Dentists include:

• Positive Encounters for Children to Prevent Dental Anxiety – Theory and Practice written by Helen Rodd, Anne Rønneberg, Therese Varvin Fredriksen, Ingrid Berg Johnsen and Zoe Marshman
• Family Violence and Child Maltreatment written by Anne Rønneberg, Jenny Harris, Therese Varvin Fredriksen and Tiril Willumsen
• The Psychosocial Impacts of Orofacial Features: With Examples from Orthognathic Surgery written by Paula Frid, Sarah R. Baker and Jan-Are Kolset Johnsen

The book covers modern theories on a patient-centered approach to communication, preventive dentistry, dental anxiety and oro-facial disfigurement. It provides guidance on the implementation of a trauma-sensitive approach. There is attention given to the effective delivery of preventive care and dental treatment for fearful and abused children. Further chapters address topics as varied as managing blood-injury-injection phobia, dealing with a severe gag reflex, dental professionalism and practitioner burnout.

Sarah Baker, Professor of Psychology as Applied to Dentistry, University of Sheffield said “We look at the importance of psychology to the maintenance and promotion of good oral health – as well as the role oral health plays in overall health using a biopsychosocial approach. It has been inspiring to work with the teams from Oslo and Amsterdam who brought their multi-disciplinary approach to bear. There is consensus that a person-centred focus on oral health can impact positively on quality of life. Our research explored the psychosocial impacts of conditions affecting oro-facial appearance, and the role psychologists can play in patient care.”

Zoe Marshman, Professor in Dental Public Health, University of Sheffield said: “Together with our colleagues from Norway, Professor Helen Rodd, who provided clinical insights as a Consultant Paediatric Dentist, and I explored the significance of making a child’s visit to the dentist a positive experience. Anxiety is a key barrier to children attending the dentist. Dental anxiety (DA) is extremely common in children, with a 2020 systematic review reporting a global pooled prevalence of around 24%[1]. This is a phenomenon that many practicing Paediatric Dentists will recognise.  So, we are glad that our contribution can provide insights and tips to make dentist appointments for children a positive experience.”

Dr Jenny Harris, President, BSPD and Consultant Community Paediatric Dentist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Dental teams have a duty of care to provide a safe place for children to feel that they can ask questions and speak up when they need help or feel scared. Our chapter focuses on recognising and responding to maltreatment or family violence so we can give our patients, both children and adults, adequate help and support. We provide tools to support students of dentistry as well as experienced dental professionals.  BSPD believes that Oral Health Psychology is an excellent educational resource and will help readers to solve challenges in their own clinical settings.”

Reference:

[1] Grisolia BM, Dos Santos APP, Dhyppolito IM, et al. Prevalence of dental anxiety in children and adolescents globally: A system- atic review with meta-analyses. Int J Paediatr Dent. 2021;31:168– 83. https://doi.org/10.1111/ipd.12712.

BSPD leaders have undertaken training on Children’s Rights in Practice from the UK Committee for UNICEF’s (UNICEF UK) Child Friendly Cities & Communities programme.  It was attended by BSPD’s key representatives to external organisations, chairs and secretaries of branches and affiliated groups and the executive committee.  BSPD’s President, Jenny Harris is making ‘Rights from the Start’ centre-stage for the Society during her presidential year.  

The learning outcomes from UNICEF UK’s training include gaining good knowledge and understanding of children’s human rights, understanding the meaning and principles of a child rights-based approach and exploring its practical application in work with and for children and young people.

Jenny Harris, who is a community-based Consultant Paediatric Dentist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust,  began visiting BSPD’s regional branches in January 2023 taking a lecture on ‘Rights from the Start’ around the UK, exploring the clinical implications of upholding children’s rights in paediatric dentistry. Her lecture, presented either in person or virtually, is illustrated with case examples showing how children with disabilities have the right to extra help and special care. Jenny also raises the rights of children to be protected from harm and the role dental professionals should play in safeguarding them from maltreatment.

Jenny Harris, President, BSPD said “Children’s rights is our focus this year, so it is essential that as a Society we understand more clearly what that means.  UNICEF UK’s training will allow those who attended to take the learning back into their roles and share insights both with their BSPD teams and in their own workplaces. We covered important principles such as treating children and young people without discrimination, encouraging their participation and making decisions in their best interests – all of which have applications in the day-to-day situations faced by our members.”

Sarah Handley, UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Child Friendly Cities and Communities Programme Manager,  said “Every child has the right to the best possible health – and access to good oral care is part of this. Paediatric dentists have a role to play in upholding Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which covers ‘health and health services’, and advancing children’s rights more broadly. So, it was important to be able to work with BSPD leaders to discuss how appropriate oral health education, care and services are integral to that goal.”

Outcomes from the session will include a reassessment of BSPD’s mission and strategy, to ensure children’s voices are amplified – as well as working with the Society’s members to disseminate the key messages of  UNICEF UK’s Children’s Rights in Practice training.

The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry’s (BSPD) Outstanding Innovation Award (OIA) which celebrates inspiring and innovative schemes to improve the oral health of children, enters its seventh year in 2023.  Entries are now invited from anyone who is a member at the time of submission, with an initiative or scheme which has had a demonstrable impact on children’s oral health.

This award was established in 2017 to recognise, and encourage, the work of BSPD’s members in the area of innovation. By providing positive publicity for the initiative and its creator, the Society aims to encourage, promote and disseminate good practice. The deadline for applications for the 2023 award is end of day on Friday 17^th February 2023, and the winner will be notified by the end of the month.

Entries must be made on the standard application form (see below) and applicants may include information and illustrations of any relevant resources in a single attachment (up to 5 pages of A4). All entries must be projects initiated or managed by BSPD members and the project must be UK-based. Entries will be judged against the criteria by a sub-committee of BSPD Executive comprising the president, past president, the honorary editor and the BSPD spokesperson. Each member will score the projects independently and the sub-committee will then meet to agree an overall winner. The sub-committee may offer commendation for any exceptional projects that do not win. 

The scoring system is as follows:

• Alignment with BSPD’s mission statement (10 points)
• Innovative nature of the project (10 points)
• Extent to which the project provides a benefit to children and/or young people (10 points)
• Extent to which the project addresses oral health inequalities (10 points)
• Involvement of relevant stakeholders (5 points)
• Presentation of entry (5 points)

The Award is then presented each year at the Society’s Annual Scientific Conference in September. The winner’s prize also includes:

• Free entry to attend one day of the Conference
• One night’s accommodation and UK travel, booked in line with the Society’s Expenses Policy
• Allocated time in the Conference programme to give a 20-minute presentation on the project
• A BSPD press release, including photograph, disseminated to the dental press

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION FORM

Please send completed forms for consideration to administrator@bspd.co.uk.

Previous winners of OIA are:

• 2022 Joint winners Jemma Facenfield for her Dental Clinic for looked-after children and adolescents & Lucy Ridsdale for Dental Care Pathways for looked-after children
• 2021 Simon Hearnshaw for the In Practice Prevention Scheme
• 2020 Linzi Maybin for her Happy Teeth Outreach project
• 2019 Helen Rogers for establishing CONNECT Trainees
• 2018 Ben Underwood for Brush DJ app
• 2017 Ingrid Perry for Teeth Team

Rights of the child was the key theme for this year’s BSPD Annual Scientific Conference, held at Cutler’s Hall, Sheffield between 15-16 September. So with the sometimes complex oral health needs of children firmly in mind – along with a focus on their overall well-being, particularly for the vulnerable, the Society reviewed the large number of high quality prize entries this year and announced the winners in the awards and poster categories – as follows:

Undergraduate Poster Prize

• Winner: Nitignya Navadgi, Cardiff University
• Topic: Increasing knowledge on the immediate management of dental traumatic injuries in children

Dental Care Professional Poster Prize

• Winner: Joanne Ellis, Sheffield Teaching Hospital Charles Clifford Dental Hospital 
• Topic: Provider perspectives of integrating a communication tool within routine dental care

Clinical Case Prize (sponsored by RA Medical)

• Winner: Kathryn Rowles, Cardiff University Dental Hospital
• Topic: Spontaneous dental abscesses in a child with SATB2-associated syndrome: A case report

Jane Goodman Clinical Governance Prize

• Winner: Katie Horisk, Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals, London
• Topic: Implementation of training resource to improve prescribing practices of paediatric dental department

Poster Prize

• Winner: Lamis El Sharkasi, School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield
• Topic: Caries-inhibitory effects of silver diamine fluoride: influence of time and potassium iodide

Research Prize (sponsored by Consultants in Paediatric Dentistry Group)

• Winner: Claudia Heggie, University of Leeds
• Topic: Exploring implementation of photobiomodulation for mucositis management: The role of Paediatric Dentists

Dr Chris Vernazza, Editor, BSPD and part of the judging panel said: “The judges of the prizes and posters this year had a particularly tough job since the quality and range of the entries was striking. We are so delighted that the winners’ list showcases such a broad range of topics – but each keeps the well-being of the child front and centre. Paediatric dentistry must focus on the training of professionals, promoting preventative approaches and enabling the swift treatment of children – whilst always keeping their overall well-being in mind. We felt that each of our winners showed creativity and thoroughness in their work in their specialist topics.”

The UK’s cost of living crisis is seeing many families make tough choices about what to prioritise and where to make cuts. BSPD is offering advice to parents and carers to help them maintain good oral health for their children during this period of austerity. BSPD’s focus for the year is on the ‘Rights of the Child’ – and health, including oral care, is a vital part of that. The Society is also mindful that the oral healthcare teams, along with other healthcare providers, need to play their role in encouraging planet-friendly choices and behaviours – so that the products that we use are not contributing to damaging the Earth.

This guidance from BSPD is the Society’s ‘Good Oral Health Needn’t Cost the Earth’ Top Ten Tips:

1. Take your infant to the dentist – prevention is better, and cheaper to the pocket and the planet, than cure. Children and young people under the age of 18 (or 19 if they are in full-time education) are entitled to free dental care on the NHS. BSPD’s Dental Check by One (DCby1) encourages every baby to be taken to the dentist before their first birthday.
2. Choose a manual toothbrush – all your child needs is a dentist recommended, simple, cheap, toothbrush as they start to get used to the idea of brushing. There is no need to splash out on a flash electric toothbrush for children. And consider buying a multi-pack, which can be far cheaper and will ensure you have a new brush on hand to replace the old one after two months.
3. Bamboo is better – You might want to consider trying a bamboo toothbrush for your children. Bamboo toothbrushes are better for the environment than plastic ones[1]. Switching to a bamboo toothbrush is a simple way to reduce the use of plastic at home. And a bamboo toothbrush doesn’t need to break the bank, since you can buy one for as little as one pound.
4. Take two minutes, twice a day – The most important thing is that children USE their toothbrush twice a day to brush their teeth – guided by you up until the stage when they have the dexterity to tie their own shoelaces. Two minutes of your time doesn’t cost anything!
5. Make brushing fun – to encourage adherence to the recommended twice daily brushing, consider downloading a free brushing app. Visit BSPD’s website and discover a range of videos for both toddlers https://www.bspd.co.uk/Kidsvids and others by Brush DJ https://www.brushdj.com to keep older children engaged.
6. Make toothpaste last – contrary to popular belief, when it comes to toothpaste it’s about quality versus quantity. Did you know that all an infant under 3 years of age needs is a flat smear of fluoride toothpaste? This is about the same amount as a grain of rice. Choose own brand (pharmacy or supermarket) toothpaste (with at least 1000ppm fluoride). For children older than 3, a pea-sized blob of toothpaste with up to 1500ppm fluoride per brushing is all you should be using.
7. Drink tap water – it’s free! – good oral health can benefit from keeping well hydrated. This supports your gums and also helps wash bacteria away. Use a cheap refillable water bottle and refill from the tap. You can also help your baby’s hand-eye co-ordination by letting them learn to drink from the lip themselves! Tap water is all you need to rehydrate and in some areas the drinking water has been fluoridated, since research has proven the benefits to community oral health.
8. Avoid the confectionery aisle – reduce your baby’s sugar intake from the start. Babies’ tastes for food develop and you can ‘palette train’ your little ones as you start weaning and encourage them not to seek out sweet treats. So, by-pass the sweetie aisle in the supermarket – and don’t add sugar to food or drinks.  It helps your pocket and encourages good eating habits for life.
9. Teeth are for eating – not opening bottles! – this might seem obvious, but it is surprising the number of children who come to the dentist with dental trauma and chipping caused by trying to use teeth to cut, open or rip things that they aren’t designed to do. Always wear a mouthguard for contact sports too. Remember repair is so much more complex than prevention – in terms of cost, but also in terms of the travel and energy needed to undertake complex dental repairs!
10. Spit don’t rinse – Once teeth have been brushed, your child should spit out the toothpaste but not rinse their mouth, so the fluoride continues to have a beneficial effect on the teeth for as long as possible. This is about making the fluoride work for as long and as hard as it can after brushing.

Dr Hannah Walsh, Honorary Membership Secretary at BSPD, said: “We are very mindful of the difficulties families are experiencing at the moment with the cost of living crisis.  Hard choices are having to be made in homes up and down the country and as the UK’s leading society offering support and guidance on good oral health for children, we feel it is more important than ever to show people that keeping teeth and gums healthy doesn’t need to cost a fortune. 

“What matters is good oral health ‘behaviour’.  By making cheap – and sometimes free – sensible choices you can easily make dental care a priority in your home and avoid complex treatments and trauma.  A prevention-based approach to dental decay can actually be low cost – and kinder to the planet.”

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41415-022-4905-3 The environmental impact of community caries prevention by Paul Ashley, Brett Duane, Mark Johnstone & Alexandra Lyne

CONNECT, a trainee-led research group launches their new website this week. ‘Child Oral health NatioNal rEsearch CollaboraTive’ (CONNECT) is the first UK trainee-led dental research collaborative. The aim of CONNECT is to conduct high quality, trainee-led, multi-centre research and support educational resources in the field of child oral health for the benefit of patients and families.

Financially supported by SDI, (Southern Dental Industries) the main supplier of SDF, through an on-going collaboration, yet free to the end user, CONNECT focuses on providing child oral health research, education and training resources. Any member of the dental team can access the website and resources if they are a CONNECT member. Sign up is available on the website to anyone who is interested www.connecttrainees.co.uk/.

With the enhanced website, CONNECT will now be even better placed to support the sharing of educational resources and research experience in paediatric dentistry for colleagues to learn from their peers.

CONNECT can help those undertaking a research project as part of a Master’s degree to develop their projects further and gain data from multiple centres. CONNECT will also seek funding for projects of its own, giving its members experience in supporting and conducting research.

The new website will provide a more user-friendly platform as we expand our membership to those practitioners working in primary and secondary care facilities, as well as internationally.  The new website gives access to previous education and training webinars, free research training resources, opportunities to support clinical research and much more.

How to ‘connect’ with CONNECT:

Simply access the website here (www.connecttrainees.co.uk/) join up for free, and enjoy the resources that are on offer.  Additionally, the team will be operating a mailing list to notify members about upcoming webinars, which offer verifiable CPD (Continuing Professional Development), and opportunities to take part in multi-centre collaborative research.  

Greig D Taylor, Chair of CONNECT, Newcastle University said: “CONNECT is the first, and only, UK trainee-led research collaborative in dentistry. Having launched in 2017, and in 2019, been awarded the BSPD’s Outstanding Innovation Award, we have grown from strength to strength. Improving our existing website will offer better accessibility and widen the reach of CONNECT so all members of the dental team can benefit from the research and educational opportunities that exist.  We are extremely grateful to SDI for their continued support of CONNECT, and their belief that what we are doing is making a difference!”