In collaboration with the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) Mobile Dental Clinic and generous support from Rotary and Colgate, The Dental Wellness Foundation (DWF) hit the road last week with this fully equipped van and treated over 250 children as part of its LiveSmart toothbrushing programme.

Over three days, the Dental Wellness Foundation, along with volunteers from the University of Western Cape, provided essential outreach dental care at Nyameko primary school in Mfuleni Cape Town to the school children and teachers which included screenings, preventative treatments and fillings. All dental treatment was provided pro bono.

Complete with three fully equipped dental chairs with screens to ensure patient privacy, this new mobile dental clinic includes a fully operational sterilisation area to clean and decontaminate the instruments. This UWC mobile dental clinic will now be used for all future outreach dental care, service delivery and research programmes and education sessions with the help of dental students from UWC and dental volunteers from the Dental Wellness Foundation.

Furthermore, to recognise the most dedicated students who participate in the daily toothbrushing programmes in the community, 500 children were invited to attend the 2022 graduation party. These are the children who participate in the evening toothbrushing programmes and demonstrate excellence in the LiveSmart toothbrushing programme. Each year, the Toothbrush Mamas who run the programme choose from over 20,000 children to attend a special ceremony event as a ‘thank you’ for their attendance and dedication. The event included live music and dancing and each child received a T-shirt which was sponsored by Ivodent, Thyrve Dental materials and DMG-Dental from Germany.

The research team consists of Dental Wellness Trust from London , the University of the Western Cape from Cape Town and the DMG research team from Germany

The Dental Wellness Foundation was also fortunate to receive part-funding for the transport from HCI Foundation, a gift voucher from Chequers/shoprite and a huge discount of bottled water from Aquasky, plus water donated by Enamel Clinic in Greenpoint, Cape Town.  

The Dental Wellness Foundation works in collaboration with Colgate South Africa with the Bright Smiles, Bright Futures programme delivering the LiveSmart toothbrushing programmes to over 20,000 children in the townships of Mfuleni, Khayalitcha and Delft.

At the coal-face of the entire project is a dedicated group of extraordinary women referred to as Toothbrush Mamas. They run the Livesmart schools programme, visiting participating schools and providing each child with a toothbrush. The mamas teach the children how to brush their teeth and visit the schools and ECD’s daily to check on the programme and also teach the teachers to help the children with their daily hand washing and toothbrushing. The toothbrushes stay at the school and the children use them every day. Feedback from the children and their parents is the ‘well-being factor’ of feeling clean and healthy. Many children do not have their own toothbrush or toothpaste at home due to the high costs of these items. The LiveSmart daily programme now reaches 20,000 children in 360 schools in Cape town. 

When Covid hit South Africa in 2020, the Dental Wellness Foundation responded to the rise in poverty and need for food security by introducing 12 soup kitchens — eight in Khayelitsha and four in Mfuleni. These were run by the sisterhood of ‘mamas’ who cooked the daily meals and then travelled to the schools to run the Livesmart programme whilst serving the food to queues of hungry people. Sadly, it has since been decided to close down the feeding scheme due to the huge cost. However, since April 2020 the charity has provided over 350,000 meals.

Dr Linda Greenwall, founder of the Dental Wellness Trust, says: “Thanks to our incredible sponsors, this was the first outing for our new mobile dental clinic and the facilities the van provided were paramount in enabling the children to receive such great care and treatment. It’s absolutely vital that we are able to continue providing our supervised tooth brushing programmes – especially for those living with poor oral health who are at an increased risk of many health complications.

“Our annual event was the icing on the cake and I want to give a special ‘thank you’ to the brilliant work of our 18 toothbrush mamas and to our sponsors which include Aquasky, DMG, Thryve Health, Ivodent, HCI Foundation and Shoprite. Without them, none of this would have been possible.”

London-based charity, the Dental Wellness Trust will be providing FREE dental health screenings and fluoride varnishing (which helps prevent dental decay) to over 250 children attending Waulud Primary School & Nursery in Luton.

This community-led initiative forms part of the charity’s ambitious national programme, Livesmart Dental Care, which bridges the deeply worrying gap where very few NHS dental practices across Britain are able to take additional patients due to limited capacity, financial resource and thousands of dentists exiting the profession.

Furthermore, since a number of these children have never visited a dentist before or were unable to access a dental appointment during the pandemic, this has resulted in some children experiencing excruciating pain and becoming absent from school as a consequence.

Dr Linda Greenwall

Dr Linda Greenwall, founder of the Dental Wellness Trust, says: “Without question, the impact of poor oral health on the quality of life is of urgent importance. This is why initiatives such as the Livesmart Dental Care programme are vital in providing essential treatment, interventions and preventative advice for these children and help reduce the risk in later life of chronic diseases. However, unless urgent action is taken by the Government to include oral health prevention and toothbrushing programmes, the UK is set to see higher rates of tooth decay among the Covid generation of pre-school children who have never seen a dentist or delayed seeing one for too long.” 

Headteacher, Mrs Devereux from Waulud Primary School & Nursery, adds, “We are thrilled that the Dental Wellness Trust has chosen to work with our school & nursery and offer these essential oral health screening to many of our children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Oral health is a key indicator of overall health, wellbeing and quality of life and yet unfortunately, tooth decay remains one of the most common non-communicable diseases worldwide.”

To find out more about Livesmart Dental Care programme or to get your school or nursery involved, contact: charity@dentalwellnesstrust.org.

UK charity, Dental Wellness Trust, is urging Early Years settings across London and the South East to sign up to their FREE LiveSmart supervised toothbrushing programmes, after concerns that children’s oral health has suffered significantly during the past nine months of lockdown and restrictions.

With reports of further lockdowns predicted in 2021, the charity says nursery managers MUST continue to act responsibly and make oral health a priority, potentially to reduce tooth decay in children by up to 30%1.

Latest figures by the Local Government Association show nearly 45,000 hospital operations were performed to remove children’s rotten teeth during 2018/19 as a result of tooth decay and high sugar diets. In fact, with a programme of oral health education initiatives and nationwide supervised tooth brushing programmes, these procedures would be entirely preventable. Moreover, a cash-strapped NHS would save millions in costs.

The Dental Wellness Trust is also calling for all Early Years settings with regular interaction with children to be on high alert for possible safeguarding where cases are found of severe dental decay – with responsibility not lying solely with social services. Where parents or carers repeatedly fail to access dental treatment for a child’s tooth decay or leave dental pain untreated, alarm bells concerning neglect should ring for all those working with or responsible for children.

Supervised tooth brushing programmes focus on oral health advice and education to teachers by trained professionals together with the distribution of continuous free toothpaste and brush packs for daily brushing in the classroom. They form part of Public Health England’s recommendations for effective strategies to prevent early childhood decay. In September this year, the Government gave Covid-19 guidance and permission for supervised toothbrushing programmes to resume safely in nurseries and schools.

Dr Linda Greenwall, founder of Dental Wellness Trust, says: “Although tooth decay does not discriminate, it is strongly associated with deprivation and social exclusion. This has been made worse during 2020 when dental practices were forced to shut and many children were unable to attend appointments as well as their nursery. Therefore, there has never been a greater need to resume toothbrushing schemes in Early Years settings so that any children who are suffering from dental decay are treated in primary care where possible, therefore reducing the need for onward referral into hospital.”

Dr Saul Konviser from the Dental Wellness Trust, explains: “Despite the lack of check-ups and increased sugar consumption, many oral health programmes, which are vital for reaching some of the country’s poorest children, have not yet restarted. In normal times we support more than 3,500 young children with supervised teeth cleaning. Our biggest worry is for those children whose tooth enamel is softer and thinner, making it more vulnerable to sugary lockdown diets”.

Alison Gellman, Dental Wellness Trust LiveSmart Supervisor, adds: “Public Health England’s guidelines state that it is safe to restart the supervised toothbrushing programmes and we have taken every precaution to follow their Covid guidelines. Better dental hygiene taught at an early age will have long term benefits for children’s teeth, fewer nursery days lost and better overall health and wellbeing of our children.”

To sign up to the FREE LiveSmart supervised toothbrushing programme, contact Charity@dentalwellnesstrust.org.

The Dental Wellness Trust is excited to announce a new concept of lecture to Save Kids Teeth. Due to Covid-19 it is now presenting its conference via Zoom Webinar, taking place on Friday 6th November.

A selection of speakers will highlight the causes behind Children’s emergency dental treatment, accidents, trauma and how to treat them.

For more information, visit https://www.dentalwellnesstrust.org/events-1

Event Schedule

8.30 – 8.45am – Welcome and Introduction

8.45 – 9.30am Dr Linda Greenwall – Non vital Bleaching of traumatized teeth

9.30 – 10.00am Miss Kathryn Harley – Enamel Defects

10.00 – 10.30am Dr Shiraz Khan – Minimal Invasive treatment

10.30 – 11.00am – Break and Adverts

11.00 – 11.30am Professor Siobhan Barry – Hall Crown Techniques

11.30 – 12.00pm Mr Sanjev Sood – Anterior Aesthetics and Splinting

12.00- 12.30pm Professor Sondos Albadri – Apexification, Pulpotomies and Gum boils

12.30am Dr Vidya Srinivasan – Emergency Dental Care

1.00pm – Lunch and Adverts

1.45pm Dr Gehan Abou – Ameira – Sepsis and Medical Emergencies

2.15pm Dr Richard Horwitz – Atraumatic Extractions

2.45pm – Break and Adverts

2.45pm Dr Linda Greenwall – Video Demonstration White spot lesions and resin infiltration

3.00 – 3.30pm Dr Saul Konvisor – Video Demonstration Making Sports Guards

3.30 – 4.00pm Dr Jude Ferreira – Access Cavities & barrier preparation

4.00 – 4.30pm Dr Siobhan Hewson – Step by step Pulpotomies

4.30 – 5.00pm Dr James Goolnik – Kick Sugar