An Enfield Primary school hosted a dental extravanganza on Tuesday (10 July) to hammer home the message that good oral health is vital to children and parents.

The event at Eldon Primary School in Eldon Road, Ponders End, saw dentists and dental teams from the British Society of Dental Hygiene Treatment and local NHS trusts descend on the school for a day of fun and education designed to support national efforts to reduce the number of days children are forced to take off school for medical appointments related to poor dental health.

All 1,200 pupils, aged from three to 11 received free toothbrushes and participated in workshops and educational sessions showing them why it is important to have good oral health and demonstrated the correct way to clean their teeth.

Headteacher Jane Flynn said: “We want to reduce absence levels caused by poor dental health and we thought this was a great way of working constructively with our pupils and parents to get a very important health message across in a fun and informative way.”

Enfield Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Cllr Achilleas Georgiou, said: “Poor oral hygiene can result in unhelpfully high levels of absence among pupils and it is an area we are keen to tackle as a local authority.

“We are completely supportive of Eldon Primary School’s efforts to catch this issue early and encourage better brushing to reduce absence. I would urge parents to do everything they can to encourage their children to practice good oral hygiene as they will be installing good habits that will serve them well in later life.”

Children are entitled to free dental treatment until they are 18, or 19 and in full time education.

For more details about NHS Dental care click here.