Oral and dental health

Oral health is the state of the mouth and teeth that allows people to perform essential functions such as eating, breathing and speaking. It is a key indicator for overall health, wellbeing and quality of life. Protecting oral health begins in childhood.

In Enfield, only 34% of adults (30.8% in London, 35.8% in England) and 40% of children (36.8% in London, 42.4% in England) attended dental checkups at the recommended frequency in 2021. Not attending dental checkups can contribute to dental problems and pain in the future. The rate of hospital admission for dental reasons in Enfield for 0-5 year olds between 2018/19 and 2020/21 was 412 per 100,00, which is higher than the England (280) and London averages (221). In 2022, Enfield has the highest average number of missing (extracted) teeth in five year olds in London of 0.2.

Dental buddy

Dental Buddy is a programme that provides educational resources for Early Years' Education, Key Stage One and Key Stage Two. These include activity sheets, lesson plans and interactive presentations, all of which are freely downloadable via Dental Buddy

Teeth team

Teeth team are a service that also hold resources, teaching plans and experiments for primary school children focused on dental health. Visit teeth team for more.