The number of children participating in supervised toothbrushing at nursery and school has recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic.  

In the 2022/23 academic year, 1003 nurseries and schools provided a daily supervised toothbrushing programme, with 50,705 children participating. The Designed to Smile oral health improvement programme also distributed 166,940 toothbrushing home packs via schools and nurseries, and a further 23,644 were given out by health visitors.  

The findings published in the Designed to Smile annual report show a substantial recovery in the number of young children benefiting, after delivery of the programme was disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the 2021/22 academic year, 317 nurseries and schools were supported to restart supervised toothbrushing, which represented 20 per cent of eligible schools and nurseries. In 2022/23, 60 per cent of eligible education settings took part, showing an increase of 686. However, there is still room for improvement to recover participation to pre-pandemic levels, as 1,396 schools and nurseries (82 per cent of those eligible) took part in the 2018/19 academic year. 

Further information