Childsmile is delivered to all children attending dental practices in Scotland in line with the Statement of Dental Remuneration (SDR).
Dental teams are required to provide preventative dental care and caries management, tailored to the individual needs of the child.
Interventions must incorporate:
- dietary advice
- toothbrushing demonstration for parents and carers
- fluoride advice
- clinical prevention, as appropriate.
Dental team
All dental practice staff support preventive care, each practice may use a different model for delivery, whether it be the dentist providing all interventions or a combination of dentist, therapist, hygienist, extended duties dental nurse (EDDN) and dental nurse.
In some practices the EDDN will continue to see the children and parents on a long-term basis. Sometimes this is in conjunction with visits to the dentist, depending on the needs of the family.
If a practice would like a dental nurse to be upskilled to apply fluoride varnish, training is available from NHS Education for Scotland (NES).
Fluoride varnish application
Dental practices are expected to provide fluoride varnish applications to the teeth of all children at six-monthly intervals, from the age of two years (provided an appropriate medical history is available and deemed satisfactory); this is recommended by the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP) Prevention and Management of Dental Caries in Children guidance.
- An appropriately trained EDDN must have the consent of the legal parent or guardian to proceed with the fluoride varnish application.
- The EDDN must have an appropriate medical history form signed by the dentist on each occasion that fluoride varnish is to be applied by an EDDN.
- The dentist must write the treatment required i.e. ‘fluoride varnish application (Rx F- varnish application)’, sign, date and print their name.
Dental practice and the local Childsmile team
Health board Childsmile Coordinators and their teams support dental practices with:
- accessing resources
- support around wellbeing concerns
- information around access to local community groups.