Healthy Smiles

What is healthy smiles oral health accrediation ?

The Healthy Smiles accreditation supports us to adopt tooth-friendly practices and activities. By implementing the six  Healthy Smiles standards, we help to: All children should be registered and have visited a dentist before they reach 3 years of age.

The recently published results of an oral health survey undertaken by the National Dental Epidemiology Programme 1 during the 2021 to 2022 school year showed that, across the UK, there was evidence of some level of dental decay in 29.3% of five-year-old children, with tooth extraction being the most common reason for a child under 6 to have a general anaesthetic.

Healthy Smiles

Tooth decay is largely preventable yet it remains a serious problem. Findings from Public Health England’s (PHE) 2015 national dental epidemiology survey of 5 year old children showed that in 2015 in England, a quarter (25%) of 5 year olds had experienced tooth decay, having on average 3 or 4 teeth affected. The vast majority of tooth decay was untreated.

What does the accreditation involve?

There are 6 mandatory standards around oral health, including:

  1. Promoting oral health through home activities, information and dentist registration
  2. Hand hygiene for all
  3. Providing tooth friendly snacks
  4. Encourage families to bring in tooth friendly items instead of sweets and cake for celebrations
  5. Staff receive Healthy Smiles training
  6. Activities and discussions with children about oral health

Optional HS+ standard:

  1. Supervised  toothbrushing 
  2. Lunch box audit
What the training  offered ?

Our tailored training helped the professionals gain knowledge in oral care and enhance confidence and skills when delivering mouth care. This includes information on areas such as brushing, diet, dental visits and key oral health guidelines.