Oral health is important to overall health and well-being for children and youth. Poor dental health can lead to negative health and social outcomes for young people and is important to many aspects of a child’s development (Rowan-Legg, 2013).
Students with dental pain or dental disease may have problems eating, issues with speech development, and low self-esteem. Dental issues and dental pain can also result in trouble concentrating and learning during class time, or missed school days due to dental issues.
One significant oral health concern in children is early childhood caries (ECC) which is decay involving the primary teeth in children younger than 6 years of age. ECC are the most common preventable chronic disease in childhood.
By the time a child has reached school age, all twenty of their primary teeth have come in and their permanent teeth start to come in between the ages of 6 and 7 years. It is the perfect time to have them start learning proper oral hygiene. Incorporating this essential learning in schools ensures that kids understand the importance of proper oral care and builds healthy habits for optimal oral health in adulthood.
Free dental care for eligible children and youth
The WECHU supports Healthy Smiles Ontario, a government-funded program that provides preventive, routine, and emergency dental services for children and youth 17 years old and under who qualify. Learn more, including how to enroll.
Local school screening results show that children with decay and/or requiring urgent care has increased by 63% between the 2011/12 and 2018/19 school years, indicating a worsening trend in oral health among children over time in Windsor-Essex County. Compared to Ontario, the percentage of children with urgent dental needs in 2016/17 was two-times greater locally. Children from schools associated with lower socioeconomic status had the worst oral health outcomes locally (e.g., prevalence of caries). In Windsor, 23.4% of children (0-5 years old) and 21.1% of all children (0-17 years old) live in low-income households compared to 12.4% and 11.5% for all of Ontario. School screening data from 2018/2019 reported that 12.4% of children screened required urgent dental care. In 2021/2022, while only medium and high risk schools were screened, the data showed that 17.7% of children screened required urgent dental care.
Using the Ministry of Education’s Foundations for a Healthy School framework, schools, school boards, parents and community partners can work together to develop healthy school environments that promote and support student well-being.
Oral health resources and supports are organized below following this framework.
Resources & Information for:
Lessons and Activities
- Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Future: Oral Health Education Program for Grades K-1 Teachers Guide: Gives educators lesson plans to help children create good lifelong oral health habits.
- Oral Health Education Guides (OHEG) from Halton Region Public Health: Enable teachers to teach oral health as it links oral health education and resources to learning blocks and strands found in the Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8.
- The Amazing World of Oral Health - Teacher’s Guide by Crest + Oral-B: Provides educators a guide on how to begin teaching their students about oral health and hygiene. The guide provides background information, worksheet activities for the students, and classroom experiments.
- Children’s Dental Health Lesson Plans by Crest + Oral-B: Free downloadable, ready-made lesson plans for educators of children for dental health. Includes teaching guides, classroom activities, classroom experiments, reproducible worksheets, and recommended children's books. Comes in 2-day and 3-day versions. Available in English.
- Teacher’s Kits by New Brunswick Dental Society: Provides free, printable resources for teachers to teach oral health in the classroom for teachers of kindergarten to Grade 5. Includes lists of objectives, samples of letters to parents, quizzes, activities, modules, and resources for each grade.
- Oral Health Teaching Tools by Delta Dental of Michigan: This webpage provides interactive, classroom activities for educators to prepare for their students. It includes lesson plans for Grades 1-4, activity sheets, and other resources.
- Dental Buddy by Oral Health Foundation: Free downloadable program that is created by dental professionals and can be taught at school or at home. Made for parents and teachers. Includes lesson plans, activities, and presentations for ages 3-11.
- EggSperiment Activity by Canadian Dental Association: An experiment that can be done either in the classroom or at home to show the importance of fluoride toothpaste by brushing one side of an egg with fluoride toothpaste and the other with none. The egg will be then soaked in vinegar to show that the fluoride protects the eggshell. Takes about 5-6 days for the full experiment.
- Smile Certificate by Canadian Dental Association: A certificate generator to award kids when they have lost their first tooth. A form is filled out and then a certificate is generated.
- Fun Kids Activity book by Crest + Oral-B (English) & (Spanish): Available in English and Spanish. A printable activity book for kids to promote oral health.
- Children’s Oral Health Activity Book by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): A free, printable activity book in relation to oral and dental health by the CDC. An interactive way for children to learn good oral health habits. It is recommended for children aged 3–8 years. Available in English, Amharic, Arabic, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), French, Oromo, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya, and Vietnamese.
- All-Star Brusher Award Certificate by Crest + Oral-B (English) & (Spanish): A fun certificate to give to kids to award them. Promotes confidence and positive reinforcement in children to keep up their good brushing habits. Available in English and Spanish.
School Dental Screenings
Every year registered dental hygienists and dental assistants from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit visit all publicly-funded (and some privately-funded) elementary schools in Windsor and Essex County to screen all Junior (JK) and Senior (SK) Kindergarten, and Grade 2 students. Additional students from other grades may be screened, based on the previous year’s dental screening results of Grade 2 students.
These school dental screenings do not replace a child’s regular visit to the dentist, as they are visual assessments only. School screenings and oral health education assist families and kids to:
- Identify children with oral health needs and notify the family.
- Assist in providing resources for families and linking them to eligible programs.
- Monitor oral health needs in the community.
- Educate children on the importance of oral hygiene and oral health habits.
What happens at a school screening?
- A dental hygienist/dental assistant uses a “no-touch” technique on the child and takes a quick look; the only equipment used is a light and a sterilized mouth mirror.
- Appropriate PPE is worn, hand hygiene is performed, sterilized instruments are used.
- A “dental report card” is sent home with each child - an informational card that provides the dental hygienist’s findings and their recommendations.
Resources
- Oral Health for Children – A Parent’s Guide by Ontario Dental Hygienists’ Association: A fact sheet developed for parents of young ones for background information in regard to dental hygiene for their children.
- Education and Resources for Parents by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry: This webpage includes resources and articles specifically for parents of school aged children. The resources are organized by age group from newborn to teens, and special needs children.
- Oral Health Activities by the Government of Northwest Territories: Ideas of activities meant for home that parents/guardians can do to promote oral health. Also includes links to downloadable, printable oral health activity books for kids. The activity book is available in, Chipewyan, Cree, English, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, and Tlicho. Also included is a printable chart for a child to keep track of their brushing habits; includes spaces to be crossed off when the child brushes in the morning and night for 30 days.
Community Programs
- Healthy Smiles Ontario is a free, government funded dental program for eligible children and youth 17 and under. To be eligible a child needs to be a resident of Ontario and live in a household with a net family income that meets the income eligibility requirements for the program. For more information about how to enroll and the services that are included in the program, visit our Healthy Smiles Ontario information page.
- Fact sheets about the program are available in Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), English, Farsi, French, Italian, Oji-Cree, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Somalian, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese.
-
St. Clair College Dental Clinic: This dental clinic, located at St. Clair College, is a clinic that is available to anyone who is 18 years or older or between 13-17 years old with parental consent. Please note that the dental clinic is a teaching facility. Dental students are supervised by registered dental hygienists or a licenced dentist.
• Services provided:
• Complete Oral Inspection
• Necessary X-rays
• Periodontal Scaling/Root Planing
• Periodontal Probing
• Selective Polishing
• Fluoride Treatment
• Sealants
• Oral Hygiene Instructions
• Nutritional Counseling (Tailored to oral health)There is an all-inclusive cost of $25. Certain other services would have an extra cost.
School Dental Screenings
Every year registered dental hygienists and dental assistants from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit visit all publicly-funded (and some privately-funded) elementary schools in Windsor and Essex County to screen all Junior (JK) and Senior (SK) Kindergarten, and Grade 2 students. Additional students from other grades may be screened, based on the previous year’s dental screening results of Grade 2 students.
These school dental screenings do not replace a child’s regular visit to the dentist, as they are visual assessments only. School screenings and oral health education assist families and kids to:
- Identify children with oral health needs and notify the family.
- Assist in providing resources for families and linking them to eligible programs.
- Monitor oral health needs in the community.
- Educate children on the importance of oral hygiene and oral health habits.
What happens at a school screening?
- A dental hygienist/dental assistant uses a “no-touch” technique on the child and takes a quick look; the only equipment used is a light and a sterilized mouth mirror.
- Appropriate PPE is worn, hand hygiene is performed, sterilized instruments are used.
- A “dental report card” is sent home with each child - an informational card that provides the dental hygienist’s findings and their recommendations.
Resources
- Oral Health for Children – A Parent’s Guide by Ontario Dental Hygienists’ Association: A fact sheet developed for parents of young ones for background information in regard to dental hygiene for their children.
- Education and Resources for Parents by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry: This webpage includes resources and articles specifically for parents of school aged children. The resources are organized by age group from newborn to teens, and special needs children.
- Oral Health Activities by the Government of Northwest Territories: Ideas of activities meant for home that parents/guardians can do to promote oral health. Also includes links to downloadable, printable oral health activity books for kids. The activity book is available in, Chipewyan, Cree, English, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, and Tlicho. Also included is a printable chart for a child to keep track of their brushing habits; includes spaces to be crossed off when the child brushes in the morning and night for 30 days.
Community Programs
- Healthy Smiles Ontario is a free, government funded dental program for eligible children and youth 17 and under. To be eligible a child needs to be a resident of Ontario and live in a household with a net family income that meets the income eligibility requirements for the program. For more information about how to enroll and the services that are included in the program, visit our Healthy Smiles Ontario information page.
- Fact sheets about the program are available in Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), English, Farsi, French, Italian, Oji-Cree, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Somalian, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese.
-
St. Clair College Dental Clinic: This dental clinic, located at St. Clair College, is a clinic that is available to anyone who is 18 years or older or between 13-17 years old with parental consent. Please note that the dental clinic is a teaching facility. Dental students are supervised by registered dental hygienists or a licenced dentist.
• Services provided:
• Complete Oral Inspection
• Necessary X-rays
• Periodontal Scaling/Root Planing
• Periodontal Probing
• Selective Polishing
• Fluoride Treatment
• Sealants
• Oral Hygiene Instructions
• Nutritional Counseling (Tailored to oral health)There is an all-inclusive cost of $25. Certain other services would have an extra cost.
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