Baby teeth do matter, says poster campaign

The Oral Health Services Research Centre has produced four Happy Teeth posters for display in dental waiting rooms.

The posters advocate twice daily brushing with fluoride toothpaste (1,000ppm) from two years and above.

The posters also provide parents and carers of young children with the following key tips:

• Start brushing as soon as the first teeth appear
• Under age two, just use a soft brush and water (unless advised otherwise by your dentist)
• From age two, use a small pea-size amount of toothpaste
• Help your child with brushing up to at least age seven
• Brush twice a day.

Intended for display in waiting rooms of dental clinics, primary care centres, day care centres and preschools, the four A3-sized posters were designed to be rotated in sequence every four to six weeks.

Download the posters

The Happy Teeth posters are available for download from University College Cork, through the Health Research Board funded Knowledge Exchange and Dissemination Scheme (KEDS).

The posters were produced as a direct result of the Happy Teeth project, which piloted a supervised tooth brushing programme in four preschools/crèches in RAPID areas of Cork City during 2012/2013.

Three Youtube videos were also created in support of the poster campaign on toothbrushing, sugary drinks and infection control.

These videos explore the use of social media as a means for disseminating oral health messages and providing online training to service providers.