How is the Welsh Government promoting preventative care for dental issues?
The Welsh Government funds two large preventative care programmes across Wales.
Designed to Smile (D2S) is a national oral health programme for children and has been in place for more than a decade. It operates in all health board areas and works with families and young children aged 0 to 7.
There are two distinct elements to the programme:
· A preventative programme for children from birth. This involves a wide range of professionals, including health visitors and other early years services. The aims are to help start good habits by giving advice to families with young children, providing toothbrushes and toothpaste and encouraging going to a dental practice before a child's first birthday.
· A preventative programme for nursery and primary school children: This involves the delivery of nursery and school-based toothbrushing and fluoride varnish programmes for children to help protect teeth against decay.
We have seen a reduction in levels of dental decay in five-year-olds since 2008 and in 2022/23 we had over 50,705 children regularly tooth brushing as part of the scheme.
Gwên am Byth is another national oral health improvement programme delivered by the community dental services in Wales with the primary aim of improving oral health and hygiene for older people living in care homes. It was first introduced in 2015 and is delivered in partnership with care and nursing home staff and wider social care and health care professionals.
It is designed to ensure:
· An up-to-date mouth care policy is in place in each care home
· Staff are trained in mouth care (including at induction) and the home keeps a register of training
· Residents have a mouth care assessment at appropriate intervals to identify any changes that will impact on their oral health
· The assessment leads to an individual care plan, designed to support routine good oral hygiene that is reviewed on a regular basis
· Care homes are aware of how to ensure timely access to appropriate dental care and treatment when required.
A Gwên am Byth Essential alternative package was developed in 2021 to enable a simplified approach to offer and achieve the aims of the programme to all care homes and other care providers, such as domiciliary care services
In 2022-23, 404 older adult care and nursing homes participated in Gwên am Byth. The Community Dental Services provided 1,168 training sessions and conducted 594 quality assurance visits.