11/07/2023 - Over 450 children seen at free pop-up dental clinics since April

Luton Council, in partnership with Flying Start, Early Years Alliance and Obex Dental, have held 6 pop-up dental clinics for children under the age of 8 since April. These clinics have been organised by Luton Council’s Public Health team and held at community centres and Early Years settings around the town. They were set-up to provide a chance for children who may have never previously seen a dentist due to the pandemic to receive a fluoride treatment, register with Obex Dental and learn more about dental health.

The clinics aim to provide education about oral hygiene by engaging the children in fun activities and storytelling themed around dental health. Attendees were also shown what foods and drinks have high sugar content, and therefore detrimental to oral health, especially in children.

Since the first clinic on 13 April, 472 children have been seen by the team, and 81 have registered with Obex as NHS patients. 193 children also received a fluoride wash at the clinics.

The most recent pop-up clinic held at Little Gems nursery in Wigmore was the most successful thus far, attended by 126 children, 40 of whom received a fluoride treatment on the day.

Councillor Khtija Malik, portfolio holder for Public Health and Integration for Luton Council said, “Holding these dental pop-up clinics is so important for the children of Luton. Many of these children may have never seen a dentist before, whether that’s due to the pandemic or just the sheer difficulty of registering with a dentist on the NHS at the moment. Improving population wellbeing and tackling health inequalities to enable everyone to have a good quality of life and reach their full potential is one of our key Luton 2040 priorities, and these dental clinics are bringing us one step closer to that. Dental decay is largely preventable, and so we want to ensure that all children in Luton have the best chance to have good oral health, regardless of their income.”

A father of two who attended one of the clinics said, “This is a great idea, my seven year old has never been to a dentist, it has got so bad that I planned on taking him to Poland to see a dentist in the summer. I am glad I had this to come to.”

This great initiative isn’t over yet – the team are in the process of planning more public clinics, as well as visits to nurseries and schools.

To find out more or keep up with upcoming clinics, please visit Luton Council on Facebook and Twitter.