Published Monday 13 May 2019 at 9:44
As National Smile Month gets underway today (Monday 13 May) Blackburn with Darwen Council and local health partners and dentists are promoting a campaign that aims to tackle dental decay in under-5s.
Smile 4 Life in Blackburn with Darwen builds on NHS England’s Starting Well: Smile 4 Life campaign rolled out in areas across Lancashire and South Cumbria to improve children’s oral health.
The aim of the campaign is to encourage parents of under-5s who have rarely visited a dentist for their child, or have never visited a dentist for their child, to attend regular check-ups and get early preventative advice.
There’s lots going on Blackburn with Darwen to encourage parents of 0-5s to attend their local dentist and the Council has worked with one practice, Darwenside Dental, on a video to help promote the campaign, which you can view below.
It features a mother, young baby and dental therapist all explaining why the messages behind the campaign are important.
Darwenside are also promoting their own take on Smile 4 Life through the surgery, which is explained in the video.
Smile 4 Life in Blackburn with Darwen will be promoted online and through the Council’s, and other key local health and wellbeing partners’, social media channels.
Figures show that in 2015 more than 55 per cent of five year olds in Blackburn with Darwen had tooth decay.
Tooth decay can be the cause of pain, infection and sleepless nights and young children often need treatment for this.
National Smile Month is a long-running campaign to promote good oral health.
It highlights good dental health practice and how to achieve good physical and mental wellbeing by improving our oral health.
National Smile Month 2019 takes place between Monday 13 May and Thursday 13 June.
Dominic Harrison, Director of Public Health for Blackburn with Darwen Council, said:
National Smile Month is the perfect time to be launching Smile 4 Life in Blackburn with Darwen. We know children’s dental health is an area we need to improve on and the roll-out of this programme is a fantastic way to help do it. Our message to the parents of under-5s is that, even though they are still so young, you can still get their teeth checked free of charge and get some vital early preventative advice that could stop problems occurring later on.