Question reference: S6W-26198
- Date lodged: 14 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the fluoride varnish aspect of the Childsmile programme, and whether it plans to continue with this element of the scheme.
Answer
Specific evaluations of the Childsmile programme are undertaken by the University of Glasgow. Publications can be viewed online at https://www.gla.ac.uk/ .
More broadly, the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) monitors the general oral health of children in Scotland. The latest NDIP statistics published in October 2023 showed that 82% of P7 children have no obvious decay, compared with 53% in 2005. In addition, the difference in the percentage of children with no obvious decay in the most and least deprived areas decreased from 26.3 percentage points in 2009 to 16.1 percentage points in 2023.
This shows the success of our flagship Childsmile Programme. Fluoride varnish is a key element of Childsmile and there are no plans to remove this aspect of the programme.