Member Article

Honour Health supports Teeth Team to protect kids’ teeth

A leading dental and skincare practice in Stanley, County Durham, is the first in the North East to support a nationally–recognised initiative to improve children’s dental health.

Honour Health, based on Front Street in Stanley, is the region’s first practice to join forces with Teeth Team, a well-established programme which takes dental education directly to children in local primary schools.

The first school in the area to experience the Teeth Team programme is St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Stanley. This week, Teeth Team, with Honour Health’s dentist Lewis Kapa and nurse Julie Hughes, visited St Joseph’s to carry out dental health assessments, apply fluoride varnish, and provide details for children’s parents about how to access further dental care if required.

Staff from Honour Health will return for further assessments in six months, and Teeth Team has also equipped the teachers with the facilities to carry out a daily, supervised tooth-brushing programme with the pupils.

Honour Health has three practices - in Ponteland, Jesmond and Stanley. Mr Onkar Dhanoya has been principal dentist at the well-known Stanley practice for more than 30 years, having taken it over from the late Gordon Smales in 1986. Last year, the practice changed its name from Stanley Dental, rebranding as Honour Health to better reflect the advanced range of dental and skin treatments on offer. The word ‘health’ also highlights the team’s mission, which is to focus on the prevention of dental disease, and to improve patients’ health and wellbeing across the North East.

The Stanley practice’s support of Teeth Team comes at a time when cases of children’s tooth decay are rising. An analysis of NHS figures by the Local Government Association earlier this year found that there were 42,911 hospital operations to remove children’s teeth in England in 2016-17, up from 40,800 the previous year, and 36,833 in 2012-13.

Mr Dhanoya said: “We are thrilled to be the first practice in the region to support Teeth Team in their very worthwhile work. We are particularly delighted to be visiting St Joseph’s, across the road from us, as the first school in the area to experience this programme.

“Our name reflects the fact that we are always working to improve patients’ health, and we want to take every opportunity to inspire children to protect their teeth from an early age – particularly considering the shocking NHS statistics about the rising number of tooth extractions happening in hospitals across the country. These are preventable operations and we want to do all that we can to help decrease that number.”

The Teeth Team programme is facilitated within the City of Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire in conjunction with 543 Dental Centre.

Mrs Fountain, coordinator of Teeth Team, said: “We are so pleased that Honour Health has chosen to support our initiative, as our first North East practice. We hope that, by visiting schools regularly, and working with Honour Health to educate local children about keeping their teeth healthy, we can help to prevent tooth decay and hopefully lower the number of fillings or extractions needed by children.”

Mrs Haveron, acting head teacher at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, said: “The children really enjoyed their visit from Teeth Team and Honour Health. The team really know how to create a fun learning experience for youngsters, which is so important, it helps them to learn good dental health habits for life.”

Honour Health offers NHS and private dental care, and focuses on the prevention of dental disease. The team provide comprehensive dental health assessments to monitor the health of the patient’s mouth, teeth and gums.

For further information about Honour Health Stanley, visit www.honourhealth.co.uk, call 01207 232 725 or email stanley@honourhealth.co.uk

Follow @honourstanley on Twitter, Like Honour Health Stanley on Facebook and follow @honour_health on Instagram

Honour Health Stanley, 13-15 Front Street, Stanley, County Durham. DH9 0JE

For further information about Teeth Team, visit www.teethteam.org.uk

For further information about St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, visit http://www.stanley-pri.durham.sch.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Honour Health .