On Wednesday 19 June ChildSmile was awarded a certificate of best practice by European Commissioners Vytenis Andriukaitis (Health and Food Safety), Tibor Navracsics (Youth and Sport) and Phil Hogan (Agriculture) after being selected as a best practice in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 “by 2030 reduce by one-third pre-mature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through prevention and treatment, and promote mental health and wellbeing”.

Childsmile, run by the Scottish government, commenced in 2006 against a background of the poor oral health and extensive oral health inequalities observed in children in Scotland, with the aim of improving the oral health of all children and also with emphasis on the more deprived groups in society.

Childsmile consists of three distinct components extending from birth to adolescence:

• A core programme – including universal daily tooth brushing in all nurseries and targeted tooth brushing in primary schools;
• A targeted nursery and school fluoride varnish programme; and
• A universal practice programme aimed at newborn children.

The project is government funded and has continues to be evaluated. Findings clearly demonstrate that the cost of the programme is significantly lower than the cost savings as a result of the reduction in treatment needs for participating children. A demonstrated reduction in oral health inequalities can be linked to the programme.

ChildSmile submitted its best practice to the Oral Health Platform, as part of its Best Practice call launched in 2019. Following an evaluation by the Platform, which showed the high quality of this programme, it was suggested to submit the best practice to the European Commission’s portal, which ultimately validated the programme as a Best Practice.

More information are available on the Commission’s best practice portal: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/dyna/bp-portal/practice.cfm?id=371

ChildSmile’s website: http://www.child-smile.org.uk/

The Platform’s 2019 Best Practice call is still open! Send in your applications to be evaluated and maybe feature in a future round of European Commission approved best practices!