The Brush Bus in EYFS

The Brush Bus is a bury initiative to promote daily tooth brushing and positive oral hygiene in EYFS. Oral Health is part of the new EYFS curriculum and is a government initiative. It is anticipated that children’s oral health will have deteriorated not only during the Coronavirus pandemic but will continue during the recovery period. This is thought to be due to children spending more time at home and reduced access to an NHS dentist.

• In 2020 - 50,000 children in England were hospitalized to have teeth extracted under a General anaesthetic
• This was a 40% increase
• Cost – millions to the NHS
• 35% of children are embarrassed about their teeth
• 6% have had time off school  4% of parents have had time off work to look after their children suffering with toothache The prevalence of tooth decay in the borough of Bury is high as in the rest of Greater Manchester.

Tooth decay is entirely preventable, Oral health really matters for our children

In Early Years we promote good oral health habits to teach our children the importance of looking after their teeth and establishing good oral health routines.

Reception children take part in The Brush Bus. This is a supervised toothbrushing programme. The children brush their teeth every day in school. In Reception we brush our teeth when we come in from Lunchtime. We brush them for 2 minutes using a pea sized amount of toothpaste. To help us brush we use a range of toothbrushing songs on YouTube.

Here are some very simple messages that you can use to help promote good oral health at home:

• Brush your teeth twice a day for two minutes with a fluoride toothpaste, once before bed and one other time during the day.
• Eat less sugary food and drink - find out more at dentalhealth.org
• Visit your dentist regularly. Book a visit to the dentist once your child gets their first tooth and regularly