Food and Health Guidelines - Torfaen Family Information Service

5. Oral health
Tooth brushing in Early Years settings
Using fluoride toothpaste regularly helps to prevent dental decay in children - daily use
reduces decay by up to half.
The strength of the fluoride is important and should be a minimum of 1000 ppm and teeth
should be brushed twice a day. If this is not happening at home it may be recommended
that your setting introduces brushing of teeth.
It is important for the children’s brushing to be:
• Supervised.
• Use only a small pea-sized amount of toothpaste on the brush for 3-6 year olds and
a smear for 0-3 year olds.
• Do not allow the toothpaste to be swallowed. The child should spit out, but not rinse
their mouth with water, just rinse the brush.
• Toothbrushes are labelled with child’s name.
• Have separate storage for individual toothbrushes.
‘ Designed to Smile - A National Child Oral Health Improvement Programme was
launched in Wales in the spring of 2008 to address the significant inequalities in oral
health experienced by Welsh children. The core programme, which is scheduled to run for
three years in the first instance, consists of a supervised toothbrush / fluoride toothpaste
scheme for 3-5 year olds, complemented by an oral health promotion programme for
6-11 year olds. It is envisaged that in the longer term an additional component will
be developed promoting oral health from birth. Initially, the supervised tooth brushing
programme will take place in primary schools targeted according to severity of deprivation
and average decayed, missing and filled teeth scores.’
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