Experts make link between dental hygiene and school attendance
By analysing population-level data sets from 260,000 children across Scotland, the researchers found that those with tooth decay were absent for five extra half days on average when compared to their classmates with healthy teeth.
Children in socioeconomically deprived areas of the country were also found to have experienced twice the number of absences as a result of poor oral health compared to children from the least deprived areas.
David Conway, Professor of Dental Public Health at the University of Glasgow's Dental School, and co-Director of the Childsmile programme said: 'The findings support the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland Childsmile programme – especially supervised daily toothbrushing in nurseries and schools, which we have shown has driven child oral health improvement across Scotland.
'Childsmile is a credit to the collaboration between health and education teams – including the dedicated work of the nursery and school staff delivering supervised daily toothbrushing.
'Not only can supervised daily toothbrushing improve children's teeth it can potentially reduce school absences – giving both health and education benefits.'
Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said: 'I welcome these findings on our flagship Childsmile programme from the University of Glasgow. We have led the way with child oral health through our continued investment in this programme.
'The programme offers universal oral health interventions, such as supervised toothbrushing and fluoride varnish application to children and young people in nurseries, early years schooling and dental practices.
'There are also targeted interventions for children living in the most deprived areas.
'The success of Childsmile is reflected in the latest official stats on child oral health which show that 73% of P1 children have no obvious tooth decay, compared to 58% in 2008 – when the programme was first introduced.'
Dr Mariel Goulart, Research Assistant at the University of Glasgow's Dental School and lead of the research said: 'Our study suggests there is a need to continue to address this area of public health in school children, with the research highlighting the need for integrating oral health initiatives within educational and public health policies to mitigate school absenteeism and address health inequalities.'
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