Harrow Oral Health Promotion Team

A warm hello from Erinna and Louise.

 

We are the Oral health promotion team for the borough of Harrow. Our aim is that every child in living Harrow is given the best start in life and the opportunity to grow up free from dental decay.

 

We work in partnership with other healthcare providers to enable us to reach out and engage with the whole community.

 

According to latest statistics taken from the 5 year old BASCD dental survey, Harrow has the highest rates of decay in children and now falls at the top above all other London Boroughs. This data highlighted that 42.4% of 5 year olds living in Harrow have dental decay.

 

Our role is to increase awareness of the importance of maintaining oral health and support families by providing the key oral health messages.

 

As Harrow is experiencing such high levels of tooth decay in children, our main focus is to work within the School and Nursery settings. We have recently introduced the supervised tooth brushing programme in selected schools and 4 Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools in Harrow.

 

Children in Nursery, Reception and all year groups in SEN schools are given the opportunity to learn a life skill by brushing their teeth once a day during school hours. We hope that this programme will reduce inequalities and allow all children to learn to brush.

 

We offer training to the School nursing team and Children’s Centres. We also attend parent and toddler sessions, coffee mornings, library sessions and community events.

 

You can access oral health advice through your Health Visiting Teams, School Nursing Teams and Children’s Centre.