You are warmly invited to join the North West Population Health and Prevention Network (NWPHPN) final (but not last) COVID-19 related webinar from our 2020-21 season. The topic is a major public health issue - our children’s teeth and why teeth are everyone’s business if you are interested in public health.

Picture this:

• In 2018 - 2019, 59,011 children and adolescents (aged 0–19 years) in England were admitted to hospital for dental extractions
• In 2019 - 20, 45108 children and adolescents (aged 0–19 years) in England were admitted to hospital for dental extractions
• Prior to COVID 19, every 10 minutes a child in England had a rotten tooth removed in hospital
• Fast forward, to 2020 and the suspension of all routine dental general anaesthetic (GA) admissions for children and suspension of all routine face to face dental care from March – June 2020

Consider: How did teeth become the most common reason for hospital admissions for children even though we know dental caries is almost wholly preventable?

Understand: Tooth extractions do not occur randomly nor are they evenly spread. They can be mapped directly against levels of deprivation, with poorer areas in the North and more deprived local authorities experiencing poorer dental health.

Remember: Our children’s teeth provide a visceral marker as to the scale of disadvantage and health inequalities in society. They provide a sobering reminder of the job to be done to combat inequalities which the pandemic has also done so much to exacerbate.

Explore:

• Oral health as a classic ‘wicked problem’ where solutions are complex and multi-faceted and collaborative working is paramount
• ‘What are we’ and ‘could we’ be doing (as a system and as professionals) to stop the dental caries happening in the first place?
• How might this learning and new understanding impact on wider public health activity and approaches?

Join us for a thought provoking, challenging and insightful exploration of how by working together and collaboratively with communities in communities we can stop the rot!

We are delighted to announce a formidable, multi professional team of confirmed expert presenters which include:

• Dr Claire Stevens CBE, University of Manchester, a consultant paediatric dentist and author of the Tooth Fairy Blog
• Dr Peter Day, University of Leeds, consultant in paediatric dentistry
• Dr Mohsan Ahmad, Chair of Greater Manchester Local Dental Network
• Pamela Donaghy-Binks, Liverpool John Moores University, specialist in community public health

Join us to build a conversation to address the challenges and opportunity of tackling oral health and how this learning can support us all in addressing other challenges in public health contexts.

Target Audience: Open to anyone concerned to address the need for increased prevention and innovation in a public health context. This webinar will be of particular interest to school and community nurses, midwives and health visitors, as well as people working with children and adolescents more generally. It will provide insights for anyone concerned about health inequalities and how to up the game of prevention and protection.

If you are interested in attending the event, please book your place via Eventbrite.