Resources for Early Years Professionals

• Find out about promoting oral health as part of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), and why oral health is included in the EYFS framework. Oral health - Help for early years providers (Gov.uk)

Children should be seen by a dentist as soon as their first baby tooth appears and then attend as often as the dentist recommends. Dental treatment is free of charge on the NHS if you are registered with an NHS dentist up until the age of 18. Visit the NHS website to find a dentist.

Our popular child friendly resources include dental role play items, tooth models, games and books that can support you in exploring oral health with children and families. There are also many activities that provide a hands-on opportunity to learn about dental and oral care.

These items are all available to borrow free of charge. To see the full range of resources available take a look at the catalogue below and use the resources loan form to reserve your items:

Our Oral Health Boxes are available to loan and these enable parents and children to talk together, whilst learning about oral health. Each box contains song sheets, puzzles, story books, mouth models, brushing charts and an activity booklet.

Visit our Resources E-Catalogue to reserve your Oral Health box.

These resources may be useful in planning teaching and learning.

• Oral Health Foundation: the Dental Buddy programme hosts a series of educational resources for early years learning in KS1 and 2.

Dental Buddy

To help keep little ones busy we have put together a range of fun teeth related activities and colouring sheets for you to download and/or print.

To find more information and advice on oral health in your setting visit these websites:

• HENRY: is a charity that provides support for the entire family to make positive lifestyle changes which starts with the early years. Their website contains some useful tips and information.

Tips for healthy teeth

These free apps can help you support good oral health at home.

• Brush DJ: A free, multi-award winning App with a 2-minute timer to your child's favourite music to make brushing fun and engaging!

Brush DJ

• Change 4 Life: This App brings food labels to life and helps you make healthier choices.

Food Scanner

These age specific leaflets provide easy to read information for parents and carers about looking after teeth.

These videos are short, fun and can help to support good oral health at home.

Leicestershire County Council, Oral Health Team: This 90-second video follows a friendly animated tooth character, who takes us through the three main ways to look after our teeth.

CBBC Dr Ranj and Supertooth: Well known TV doctor and CBBC children's presenter Dr Ranj, has made age related videos to help children brush their teeth correctly.

Hey Duggee, The Tooth Brushing Song: Animated educational pre-school video aimed at 2-5 year olds, featuring CBeebies Hey Duggee and friends.

CBeebies: This video shows Mr Walrus trying to convince Teddles why brushing his teeth is important. Teedles - Brush Your Teeth

BBC: In this episode of Topsy and Tim the pair hear about the tooth fairy. Topsy and Tim - Our teeth

HENRY: is a charity that provides support for the entire family to make positive lifestyle changes which starts with the early years. They have created a video which provides information and interviews with parents sharing their experiences on all aspects of oral health care.

Campaigns are great for raising awareness and provide a great opportunity to take part in fun activities. The main campaigns supported across Leicestershire are:

Fizz Free February: Takes place throughout the month of February and you can find more information here.

National Smile Month: Takes place every year from mid May to mid June and you can find more information here.