Information

Smile4Life is an oral health improvement programme to help adults and children improve their oral health. 

Smile4Life covers 4 key themes:

  1. Encouraging healthy eating and drinking
  2. Encouraging regular toothbrushing
  3. Encouraging the promotion of a healthy lifestyle
  4. Visiting the dentist regularly

Seaton Academy are committed to the programme and are working hard to gain the Smile4Life awards.  The progress we have made can be found by following the variousTooth tabs under the Smile4Life link. 

If you have any suggestions that would support us in achieving the Smile4Life award or you have any queries or questions, please do not hesitate to ask a member of staff.

Thank you for your support.

Smile! It's National Smile Month

Once again we will be celebrating National Smile Month. This will give us further opportunities to raise awareness and education about the importance of better oral health.

Tooth 1 - Encouraging healthy eating and drinking

Tooth decay is caused by the frequent consumption of foods and drinks containing sugar. Keeping sugary foods and drinks to mealtimes is an effective way to reduce tooth decay and help the children in our care to grow up without the pain and distress that this can cause. This is why as part of the programme we have developed and implemented a Smile4Life snacking policy that ensures:

  • Your child is provided only with healthy, sugar-free snacks
  • Your child is offered only milk and water to drink between meals

The staff in Nursery are working hard to deliver this programme in preparation for accreditation of the Smile4Life award. We would therefore kindly ask parents/carers not to bring drinks (other than water), sweets or any other form of confectionary into the Nursery so that we can demonstrate compliance with the Smile4Life snacking policy and continue to be accredited with the Smile4Life award.

Tooth 2 - Encouraging regular toothbrushing

We have been working towards this award in Nursery by actively encouraging the children to feel positive and excited about tooth brushing. To support our work we have been doing the following activities:

  • Sharing stories and singing songs to promote brushing both day and night.
  • Practicing our brushing using large models and a puppet dinosaur and talking about the importance of brushing every tooth.
  • Completing a personal tooth brushing chart over a 4 week period.
  • Drawing pictures of our own healthy smile.
  • Using motivational stickers and certificates to reward the children’s work.
  • Providing every child in Nursery with a goody bag containing a toothbrush, 2 minute timer and chart.

Here are some pictures of the work we have been doing to gain the Tooth 2 Award.

Newsflash....

We have managed to achieve the Tooth 2 Award.  Well done to everyone!

Tooth 3 - Encourage the promotion of a healthy lifestyle

We continue to promote a healthy lifestyle throughout our daily routines and activities at school. We offer children a selection of fruit and water and talk about making healthy choices.

Tooth 4 - Visiting the dentist regularly

It is important whether you are a child or adult to visit the dentist regularly.

You can register for an NHS dentist at anytime and this may be by contacting NHS dentists near you to see if they have room to take on new patients.

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/dentists/Pages/nhs-dental-charges.aspx

The above link takes you to the NHS choices website for NHS charges. (New charges will come into effect on the 1st April)

If you click on the link find a dentist it gives you a list of dentists and shows the ones accepting NHS patients.

Under the useful links section on the right hand side if you click on the Help with dental costs link it shows you a list of exemptions for dental treatment.

If you don’t have a dentist and need  emergency care you can contact Dental Direct on 01228 603900 and leave a message and one of the triage nurses will call you back and arrange an appointment.

Useful Contact Numbers

Smoking

Smoking Freephone - 0300 013 3000

Seaton Pharmacy - (Pat or Michelle) - 01900 67679

Alcohol

Drinkline - 0800 917 8282

Dental

Dental Direct for emergency appointments when not registered with a dentist - 01228 603900