At North Ayrshire Council, we believe that everyone deserves a healthy smile. So, alongside the LiveWell Group, the Council has been supporting National Smile Month, over the last few weeks, running between 16 May and 16 June.
The national awareness month is all about promoting the importance of looking after our teeth and gums.
LiveWell have created an Oral Health page to provide a round-up of helpful information and tips relating to keeping good oral health and this includes a host of interesting facts. For example,
Did you know for instance, that around one third of adults and children in the UK currently have some form of tooth decay?
Also, did you know that people with gum disease are twice as likely to be diagnosed with coronary artery disease?
As part of the Council’s commitment to encourage colleagues to look after their own oral health, the LiveWell group recently hosted the NHS Ayrshire and Arran Oral Health Improvement team for an informal pop-up information event at Cunninghame House.
Health and Improvement Officer from the LiveWell group, Andrew Hale commented:
“We were delighted to recently welcome the Oral Health team to Cunninghame House. Thank you to everyone who came along to learn all about the simple ways to take better care of their oral health and find out more about how to help children and family members to do their part too.
“Staff learned so much from the team and some of the key learnings we took away are as follows:
- Remember to brush teeth for two minutes, last thing at night and one other time during the day, with a fluoride toothpaste.
- Cut down how much and how often you have sugary snacks and drinks – as, the more sugar that hits your teeth throughout the day, the more potential damage can be done.
- Visit your dentist regularly.
Hazel Andrew from NHS Ayrshire and Arran Oral Health Improvement Team said:“Thank you to everyone who took the time to come along and chat to us at the recent pop-up event. We hope we’ve been able to provide some reassurance to others that they are doing a good job of looking after their teeth and gums. It’s also been great to give NAC staff the know-how to tackle any issues that they may have especially since the pandemic, as for many people, this will be the longest period of time that they have gone without their usual dental health check-ups.”
For further information and support, contact the Oral Health Improvement Team via email or follow on social media:
Email: oralhealthimprovementteam@aapct.scot.nhs.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AyrshireandArranOHI/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NHSOHI
The Oral Health Team also promoted the new NHS Ayrshire and Arran Dental Health App – click the link here to view the app info and QR codes to scan and download.
Hazel Andrew from NHS Ayrshire and Arran Oral Health Improvement Team said:
“Free and easy to download, the new Oral Health app contains a wide range of informative knowledge sections on oral health including helpful hints and tips for children and adults, Covid-19 guidance in relation to dental treatment, orthodontics, emergency treatment information, dental news and more…
“It’s a great resource to have to hand so if you haven’t already we’d encourage staff members to give it a quick download today as a first step in their oral health improvement journey.
“Thank you to everyone who took time to come along and chat to us at the recent Irvine pop-up event. We hope we’ve been able to provide some reassurance to others that they are doing a good job of looking after their teeth and gums and give them the know-how to tackle any issues that they may have, especially since the pandemic, as for many people this will be the longest they have gone without their usual dental check-ups.
“Since the event, we have had over 40 downloads of the app so it’s great to know that staff members at North Ayrshire Council are doing their part to try to take the best possible care of their oral health.
“The pop-up event is the first of many planned in the coming months, look out on the Council’s LiveWell website and News In Brief for further updates on these.”