Adding a touch of magic: Rowan Thomas reports back from the Magical Dental Check-Up Day at Islington’s Dental Beauty.
On Saturday 14 October, 275 children were booked in at Dental Beauty Islington to receive dental checkups alongside a host of fun-filled activities. The Magical Dental Check-Up Day welcomed new NHS patients up to the age of 16 who do not have regular access to dental care.
CEO of Dental Beauty Partners Dev Patel said: ‘I worked with Henry Schein over the last six months to plan some events, potentially across all our practices. With the first one we want to give access to children who are perhaps living in low socioeconomic areas and haven’t got access to dentists right now due to shortages of dental care.’
The significance of the event for the local community of Islington was marked with an appearance from the Mayor of Islington.
Increasing access
Recent data from the Liberal Democrats found that more than 4.4 million children in England had not been seen by an NHS dentist in the past year.
Claire Stevens, clinical lead for corporate social responsibility at Henry Schein, said: ‘As a company, we have a social responsibility to look after consumers. What we’re doing here is an industry first – we are serious about supporting children that are currently being failed by the system.
‘Our role in this is bringing together all the key partners. We’ve got an amazing team and we’re here to put our resources behind them so that every child leaves with all of the equipment that they need to be able to do a good job back home.’
Commenting on the lack of dental access, Dev said: ‘All we’re hearing about is doom and gloom in the NHS, especially with dentistry. No one has availability, no one’s got access, no one’s got the funding or the ability to see new patients within the NHS. That’s an issue if you haven’t thought about adding more capacity within your current practice.
‘We always want to see NHS patients and give them the best service possible.’
Early intervention
Many of the children who attended the event had never seen a dentist before. One parent had been trying to get an appointment for her daughter for four years, and another felt that the only way to see an NHS dentist was to know one personally.
The lack of dental attendance was clearly not due to parents underestimating the importance of oral health. Dentist Mabick Thapa commented on parents’ dedication to their children’s oral hygiene. He said: ‘In general, their oral health has been quite good. We’ve had to do some fillings, but in general I’d say it’s actually quite good in this area. The parents are very up to date.’
Mabick also emphasised the importance of early intervention into children’s oral health. He said: ‘We can obviously try to fix the problems, but the main thing is trying to prevent them. And that starts from a young age.’
Magic moments
In addition to dental treatment, the children enjoyed face painting, an oral health themed magic show, and practical workshops such as applying composite fillings. Many of the staff were dressed up, and the practice had been decorated with stickers and colourful balloons to welcome their patients.
Nicki Rowland, author of The Magic Dentist, also attended to provide and sign copies of her book. It features brushing tips and advice on diet and lifestyle – all in line with Public Health England guidelines and in rhyming verse. Sending children home with the book and a goody bag of Henry Schein oral health products allowed the impact of the event to extend beyond the dental treatment they received that day.
A magic dentist also made an appearance with Dr Martin Attariani performing a magic show that reinforced essential oral health and lifestyle advice while keeping the children engaged and entertained. Martin said: ‘It’s our responsibility as dentists to provide this education – it’s not just about fixing teeth. And presenting it in this way makes it easier for children to understand and pay attention.’
Spreading positivity
This atmosphere of fun and excitement ensured that the patients’ early experiences of dentistry were positive. Assistant manager Namja explained the motivation behind the event was ‘to encourage kids in the community to go to the dentist, to show them that it’s not scary and encourage them to brush their teeth’.
The importance of this mission was clearly felt by the whole team at Dental Beauty Islington. Receptionist Vanessa said: ‘I know from a young age, a lot of kids are quite scared to go to the dentist, so it’s important to make it a bit more enjoyable for them. A lot of them are put at ease by the simple things like doing face painting and having the magician.’
Practice manager Stephanie hoped that this positivity would spread to other local children. She said: ‘Hopefully these children will go and tell their friends what a great time they had, and it might prompt other small children to want to go to the dentist as well.’
There was a strong sense of the practice staff coming together to support their community. As Dev put it: ‘It’s just been incredible to see the whole team get together, especially dentists coming in on weekends to work extra hours outside of normal contracted hours to see patients within the NHS. This is what we work for and strongly believe in giving back to our communities!’
This article first appeared in Dentistry magazine.
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