Colgate doubles commitment to Bright Smiles

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Hills Adventist College students (l to r) Zachary Go, Riyantha Naidu, Alyssa Thomson and Ryan McLean

An alarming 49 per cent of Australian children aged six years suffer from some sort of tooth decay. However, throughout Australia, more and more of the nation’s preschool and primary school children are learning how to look after their teeth, thanks to Bright Smiles, Bright Futures (BSBF), a proven school educational resource from Colgate.

Following the program’s continued success, Colgate has announced that it is doubling its commitment to the BSBF program over the next five years, with the goal of reaching 60 per cent of Australian preschools and primary schools.  To date it has successfully helped educate 3.5 million Australian children.

BSBF is a well established oral health education program for children and families to help children to understand the importance of brushing twice a day and taking responsibility for their own dental health at an early age.

The program, designed for children aged three to nine years, brings dental health to life with ‘Dr Rabbit’ and ‘Dr Brushwell’ and via toothbrush and paste packs, educational DVD, posters, brushing charts, learning guides and activity books.  The program helps to build self esteem and good health practices to create lifelong habits of brushing twice a day.

Ms Dinah McDonald, a teacher at Hills Adventist College in Castle Hill, uses the BSBF program to help her year-three students understand why it’s important to brush. She says, “I’ve incorporated the BSBF program into my health topics unit for the past three years.  The materials in the kit are easy to adapt into other areas that I teach and the program lends itself to be adapted to a teacher’s own style.

“Dental hygiene is an important topic to teach year-three students. At this age, the children are taking responsibility for their own personal hygiene and understanding the importance of it. My students love the program because they’re learning about dental hygiene in a fun way. After watching the educational DVD we practise brushing our teeth in class. This helps the kids understand why it’s important to brush their teeth properly, and helps to create lifelong habits. I find that anything we do at school, children are much more likely to do at home.”

 

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2 COMMENTS

  1. An educatory process must include the rationale for recommended behaviour. Strongly linking brushing activity to a recognition of necessity to imitate the natural chewing motion must allow greater effectiveness of what has been traditionally not only ineffective but also destructive in more people than those achieving the desired result of healthy mouths.

  2. I am Prep Teacher at St. Bernards School, 36 Patterson St. East Coburg, 3058 and this Term our Integrataed Inquiry is “What can we do to be healthy and happy?” By the end of this unit of work we hope that the students will more fully understand about how food affects their bodies and why they need a balanced diet and how important it is to brush their teeth twice a day.
    We have two prep classes with 22 children in each and I am emailling in response to your article in the Age “Bright smiles, Bright Futures” for a Kit to help us in this important education.
    With gratitude and we jhope to h ear from you soon,
    Fionna Wells

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