In 2007 Public Health England an executive agency of the Department of Health England published ‘Delivering Better Oral Health, an evidence based toolkit for prevention’.
This has been revised and updated and the 3rd edition was published in 2017.
Public Health England exists ’to protect the nation’s health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities‘.
The document was conceived to improve the nation’s health, obviously, but also to ensure that all dental professionals and any other health professional a patient might come into contact with, gave exactly the same message across the board.
It is completely evidence based…
It is a fabulous document, it will tell you everything you need to know, you can read it for yourself all 100 pages of it. You can download it and print any bits you might find useful.
It tells you for example how often to brush your teeth, how much toothpaste to use for each age group, the concentration of fluoride in practically every toothpaste you can think of including ’own brands’, information such as how many units of alcohol are in various drinks [P67 if you want to print this and stick it on your fridge] and lots and lots of other interesting, useful, important information that you need to know.
Ignorance is never, ever bliss when it comes to your health.
Prevention is better, simpler, cheaper and less painful than cure!
Any public health care system has a finite amount of resources. If it could be possible to get all of the people who are quite capable of looking after themselves to look after themselves, more resources would be available to spend on the people who really need it. This makes sound economic sense.
Delivering better oral health is a great document, it tells you exactly what to do but it doesn’t necessarily tell you why.
I firmly believe that if I can get my patient to understand why I am asking them to do whatever it is I am asking them to do- they are more likely to do it!
Hopefully this website will answer some of the whys.
I will retire in a few years, this website is primarily written for my patients, don’t forget everything I have taught you! It is also written for anyone anywhere who might care to read it. It’s written just as I would say it. I’m the kid at the back of the class who knows the answer but is too scared to put their hand up. I am used to a captive audience of one, so that’s how I have written it as if I was speaking to you in person.
If you the reader find it useful send the link to;- your friends, family, work colleagues, your auntie in Australia, anyone you can think of. It is written for the benefit of everyone, everywhere.
I hope anyone who cares to read it, my patient or not, finds it useful and informative.
Thank you for reading.
How To Look After Your Teeth 