As Dr Oosh Devalia starts her presidential year, the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) issues her BSPD President’s Charter 2025-2026, which provides guidance to policymakers to deliver ‘Good oral health for EVERY child in the UK’. This new Charter follows BSPD’s ‘Blueprint to improve children’s oral health’ which was issued in 2023. Since then a number of the Society’s recommendations have been actioned, including the roll-out of targeted supervised toothbrushing and the proposed expansion of community water fluoridation in areas of high tooth decay. So now is the right time to revise BSPD’s focus to ensure that good oral health for every child is achieved.
The Society’s message to policymakers is a list of the following nine steps. The three categories make up the 2025-2026 BSPD President’s Charter, aimed at ensuring good oral health for every child in the UK:
Immediate aims:
- Integration of oral health into other healthcare settings, with initiatives such as Mini Mouth Care Matters (Mini MCM)
- Enable effective & funded Managed Clinical Networks (MCN)
- SEN Children & Young People (CYP) to be able to benefit from oral health initiatives
Development areas:
- Expand paediatric dental workforce – including Tier 2 provision services & recruiting community-based specialists & consultants
- Enable all Dental Care Professionals to carry out the oral health care treatments they are trained to deliver
- Cut under 16s’ sugar consumption
Building policy foundations:
- Every CYP should have a ‘dental home’
- Deliver a Dental Check by One (DCby1) before every baby’s first birthday
- Reach every child: delivering all oral health information in a language & format accessible to every CYP
This year will see BSPD’s President, Executive Committee and Regional Branches across the four nations focus attention on vulnerable groups in our communities as the priority. These groups include children diagnosed with Special Educational Needs (SEN), children in other healthcare environments with additional medical needs (for example, in hospitals), neglected children, children living in poverty, asylum seeking children in the UK and children for whom English is not their first language.
Upon her appointment as BSPD President in September, Dr Devalia announced her commitment to the ‘Mini Mouth Care Matters (Mini MCM) mission,’ with an emphasis on advocating for mandatory oral healthcare for hospitalised children. One of the Society’s immediate objectives will be to ensure that the oral health needs of children receiving care in various healthcare settings are not overlooked.
Dr Oosh Devalia, BSPD President said:
“For over 70 years, BSPD has been advocating for children’s good oral health, and whilst we welcome interventions this year such as supervised toothbrushing and the proposed expansion of community water fluoridation, it is essential we ensure every child receives the oral healthcare support they deserve. This means addressing the oral health of children in health and social care settings, which can often be neglected. Recognising the importance of caring for a child’s mouth whilst they are in hospital as standard practice is a sound preventative approach, and should be the responsibility of the broader team of healthcare professionals. This is core to the Mini Mouth Care Matters programme which I created seven years ago.
“We must also ensure that neurodiverse children can be guided to look after their teeth and gums, as well as help them take part in the supervised toothbrushing programme. It is our duty to ensure that children who are vulnerable due to whatever their challenges, are properly enabled to have and maintain good oral health.”
