To think that parents are responsible for their children's teeth?

[insancerre]

Dental surgeon on BBC breakfast
Says that nurseries should be brushing children's teeth
She is regularly removing all 20 baby teethfrom toddlers under a general and giving teenagers false teeth

I work in a nursery and I really don't see this as my responsibility

It's down to parents to take children to the dentist and to brush their teeth

[79Fleur]

It’s worth noting that in the uk dental care is free for under 18s so why wouldn’t any parent register their child with a dentist and keep on top of their child’s dental health that way.

[C0untDucku1a]

My local nursery have had a toothbrush for each child at nursery for years. Parents brush teeth at home. Nursery have a spot each day when they take children to do it themselves, to create routine. To be done as an extra but shows imprortance of regular brushing.

It isnt always parenta fault. My kids dentist has said my son has two weak teeth that need special care and are likely to gst damaged, but she cant use floride as she would normally as last time she didnhe had an asthma attack, and she insisted she uses the type of floride that doesnt cause asthma attacks so wont risk it, rightly, again.

[roomsonfire]

79Fleur

Not all areas have access to a decent dentist. Here you to call a number, get put on a waiting list and wait to be assigned an NHS dentist. This can take 12 mths for one to be available in your area.

[Marcine]

Not nurseries role and I would refuse to do it - too much time and organisation involved and hygiene issues.

I also wouldn't want nursery to brush my child's teeth as he already does it twice at home.

[Rory786]

I understand the pressures that nursery staff are under but what about brushing those children teeth who are deemed as vulnerable or have several risk factors.
The children with lots of protective factors do not need to have their teeth brushed as they will not be exposed to a lot of sugar, will have their teeth brushed etc.
I appreciate what you are saying OP but hopefully only a few will need this extra care and the work you and others will be doing will be saving those children a lot of unnecessary pain.

[dementedpixie]

We are in Scotland and ds used to brush his teeth at nursery (the staff didn't do it for them). I think childsmile provided the brushes and toothpaste. We were also given brush/toothpaste by the hv

[Lucked]

I actually don't think you have to worry I am not sure that something like childsmile could be implemented in England,

[dementedpixie]

www.child-smile.org.uk/parents-and-carers/childsmile-at-nursery-and-school.aspx

[Clutterbugsmum]

I have to say that the dentist on the BBC this morning seem to be more interested in not making parents feel bad about not doing basic childcare/feeding children ten making it some else (school) responsibility.

When she said she didn't like the word blame so Charlie changed it to responsibility she was still trying to deflect from the parents.

At the end of the day YOU as a parent are to blame if your children are eating/drinking high sugar things and not cleaning their teeth. It is not the school job to do yours.

[TheFirstMrsDV]

You are being disingenuous fleur
And you know it

[79Fleur]

Roomsonfire

I wasn’t aware of this I am fortunate and have a private healthcare plan through work, this also covers my child although as stated on Nhs this would be free anyway, but they did register them as soon as I asked.
I guess you could try register your child at birth that way by the time any significant teeth have popped through you should get seen.
A 12 month waiting list is shocking.

[ChangoMutney]

I understand it's extra work for the staff, but it could make a massive difference to the children. As a child I didn't know you had to brush your teeth until I was about 7 and stayed with a friend. I have a mouth full of fillings as a result and am ashamed every time I go to the dentist ( who is lovely wi h me). If only another adult had encouraged me to brush my teeth, my DM just wasn't a great parent.

[Marcine]

If there's money available to promote tooth brushing it should go towards supporting parents to develop their parenting skills - that's something that will have long term effects on families and communities. Not having nurseries and schools make up for inadequate parenting.

[ElphabaTheGreen]

OP - this is a funded scheme in my area and had been for ages. Is it not in yours? That's how the brushes and paste get paid for in DS2's nursery and now DS1's primary school as well. When DS1 was in nursery, we had to send him in with a toothbrush, but they're now provided as part of the scheme to both nurseries and schools.

It terms of storage, our nursery has this tray thing with a big cover over it that the toothbrushes stand up in so they're kept quite separate but still altogether - it just sits up on a shelf when not in use. For extra hygiene, each brush has a little brush cover as well.

As I understand it, the school and nursery staff don't brush the children's teeth for them - it's supervised brushing. DS2 is way too young (3.5yo) to brush his teeth completely independently yet, so I'm really pleased he's doing this at nursery as a practice, then gets two proper brushes at home morning (yes, always before breakfast, not after) and evening. So in terms of staffing, one staff member could easily supervise four toothbrushers at a time - one at each sink, perhaps - and keep to your ratios. I see it more of an independent life-skills practice, rather than full responsibility falling to nurseries for maintaining the dental hygiene of the nation's under-4s.

So, in terms of your nursery workload I completely understand where you're coming from - nursery staff do a bloody amazing job on shit pay and this seems like yet another thing you're being expected to do with no remittance. However, I think the support for the scheme probably is out there (PPs have mentioned links above) plus I think if you view it as part of the EYFS self-care goals, rather than rotting teeth being 'your fault' it might make it a bit easier to bear perhaps?

[Royalcoronation]

It’s worth noting that in the uk dental care is free for under 18s so why wouldn’t any parent register their child with a dentist and keep on top of their child’s dental health that way.

Why wouldn't any parent? Some parents don't even give their kids the basics. Neglect. Being uneducated themselves. Drug addicts who don't care about themselves let alone their kids. Parents of kids who are caters for them. Lots of reasons.

So yes it should be as simple as you say. Sadly though, it's not.

[AtSea1979]

My DC nursery always brushed their teeth after lunch. I think if anyone can help vulnerable children then they should. With the free nursery hours some nurseries will have lots of vulnerable children. I don’t see why there isn’t time. It should be quite high on the priority list.
I work at a school with teenagers and we take them to brush their teeth after lunch also.

[Tiredeypops]

Some parents don't help with brushing, some kids are a nightmare to brush so some bits get missed.... this isn't saying it's not parent's job but a 3 year-old who had parents that aren't managing to clean all the teeth twice a day shouldn't have to have a general anaesthetic to have teeth out. Anything that helps avoid that is a good thing surely?

[Marcine]

After lunch is the worst time to try to do this as staff are having breaks. I have 13 children to supervise after lunch, I can't fit all of them in the bathroom at one time and I'd have to bump something else out of the busy curriculum.

[Notreallyarsed]

Our two have teeth brushing as part of their welcome time at Nursery. It’s done through Childsmile. It was put in place because our local authority area had the highest amount of pre School extractions in Scotland, so they wanted to try and stop it.

So aye, I fully agree it’s the parents responsibility. I also think that some parents couldn’t be responsible if you gave them bullet point instructions. So it is needed.

[AuntLydia]

As a previous poster pointed out, we already have a scheme in Wales to get children brushing their teeth in school. They have different colour groups and their toothbrushes go on a corresponding colour 'bus'. Their names are on the toothbrushes. Tooth decay has apparently fallen in year 1 kids because of this scheme.

I have tried to get involved with it as a childminder but they only seem to target nurseries and schools unfortunately.

It's not really about who should do the brushing. Parents should but clearly aren't. We can't just let kids suffer tooth decay because it's 'not our job'.

[Crumbs1]

Both nurseries we used insisted on teeth brushing after lunchtime play.
It is parental responsibility but good nurseries will promote hygiene skills and support parents in this.
A year waiting list isn’t a huge issue. Register them at birth and they’ll be seen regularly from 12 months. Only one or two checks missed.

Parental education is key but there are few parents who lack the ability to brush their child’s teeth. It’s hardly rocket science. The education should focus on how long they need to be helped or supervised for - I recall helped until about seven and supervised until ten. Many are unaware that decaying teeth can have far reaching health impact. Dental caries in children is abuse.

If we stopped this dreadful snacking culture and banned all teeth rotting fizzy drinks our children would have better dental health. In fact, they’d have better health full stop.

[insancerre]

To the poster who says they struggle to get their child to brush their teeth so would love nursery to do it, you've just proved my point really
You would be happy to give this responsibility to somebody else, somebody whoi is during it under duress and has 101 other things to do too
It's not just your child I would have to supervise though and one child being difficult about brushing is one thing but add another 39 and you begin to get the idea
We do lots on health and hygiene and have lots of policies on healthy eating- only milk and water, onlyvfryut and veg for snack and puddings, no sweets or treats, cakes or biscuits
We have healthy lunches and have given out leaflets and free toothbrushes and toothpaste
I think we do enough

[Notreallyarsed]

@insancerre so many posters have posted saying it is the parents responsibility and you don’t respond? You sound like you hate your job, maybe it’s just frustration with this issue that makes it sound that way, but you sound pissed off about what is asked of you in work.

[Lucked]

If there's money available to promote tooth brushing it should go towards supporting parents to develop their parenting skills

If there is money available it should go toward whatever is best proven to reduce caries, decay and expensive dental treatment to children on the nhs thus recouping the money.

I don’t know the answer to this but I am pretty sure health promotion to parents isn’t the answer.