New videos to support prevention of tooth decay in children and young people
Tuesday 19 May 2020
Statistics released by NHS Digital show that nearly 60,000 children go into hospital annually to have teeth extracted under general anaesthetic. The cost for the treatment of this preventable disease is roughly £50m annually. With this in mind Dr Claire Stevens OBE, a Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry and former president of the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) instigated the development of three videos that aim to give dental teams resources to share with parents and carers to inspire them to keep children’s teeth healthy. During the COVID-19 lockdown, dentists are only providing emergency treatment, which makes preventive advice on avoiding dental decay more important than ever.
NHS Doctor and TV Presenter, Dr Ranj, is the star of three new mini-videos made by the BSPD.
The videos combine live action with computer animation. Dr Ranj and sidekick Supertooth – guide children in different age categories on how to brush teeth. The videos are aimed at parents of children aged 0-3, 3-6 and 7+ years.
The key tips to promote prevention of dental decay are:
- Brush for two minutes at least twice a day, including last thing before bed
- Use a fluoride toothpaste
- Spit, don’t rinse after brushing your teeth
Click on the buttons below to watch the videos.
Dr Ben Underwood is a Dentist and created of the free Brush DJ app, which is an award-winning, free toothbrush timer app that plays 2 minutes of music taken from the user’s device to encourage brushing for an effective length of time. Dr Underwood was looking to integrate high quality, fun, and short videos into Brush DJ that gives parents and carers accurate information in the most accessible format. Brush DJ also features in the BSPD videos.
Dr Underwood and Dr Stevens are presenting their work at the Child Health Technology 2021 (CHT2021) conference. CHT2021 is the UK’s first conference dedicated to child health technology and will bring together healthcare professionals, industry, engineers, designers, academics, and patient representatives around one of the most exciting and fast moving fields in healthcare today.
