Early childhood
Early childhood educators can play an important role in promoting young children’s oral health. Whether you work in child care, kindergarten or community programs, you will find information below to help you improve oral health in your service and community.
Oral health promotion programs
Healthy Families, Healthy Smiles | |
| Healthy Families, Healthy Smiles is a Dental Health Services Victoria initiative aimed at improving the oral health of Victorian children aged 0–3 years and pregnant women. Part of this work is with early childhood professionals including child care educators, supported playgroup facilitators, family support workers and early intervention services, to increase knowledge, skills and confidence to promote oral health within their services. |
 Learn more about Healthy Families, Healthy Smiles
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Smiles 4 Miles | |
| Smiles 4 Miles is an oral health promotion initiative implemented in early childhood settings in partnership with local organisations. Inclusion of an oral health program within early childhood settings such as kindergartens, play groups, long day care and family day care contributes significantly to outcomes for children. |
| Learn more about Smiles 4 Miles
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Achievement Program | |
| Have you heard about the Achievement Program? The Achievement Program supports early childhood service to create healthier environments and recognises their work to improve the health and wellbeing of their communities. DHSV helped to develop the benchmarks for healthy eating and oral health. |
 Visit the Achievement Program website
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Healthy Little Smiles in early childhood services | |
| The Healthy Little Smiles education program consists of an oral health promotion resource kit and a two hour workshop for early childhood educators. The program supports long day care, family day care and kindergartens to engage children and families about oral health and embed oral health promotion within their services. For more information contact the Healthy Families, Healthy Smiles Team. |
| Please register to access the Healthy Little Smiles oral health resource kit
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Resources for you
Baby teeth count too! – an oral health education program for Early Parenting Centre staff | |
 | This is an education program for introducing oral health promotion into Victoria’s three early parenting centres. The program was developed by DHSV and clinical educators from Tweddle Children and Family Health Service, Mercy Health O’Connell Family Centre and the Queen Elizabeth Centre. The program comprises four learning sessions. The Participant’s Workbook provides content and learning activities and the Facilitator’s Guide outlines how each learning session (module) can be facilitated by either clinical educators or staff responsible for quality improvement. |
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Eat for health | |
| Eat for health is a one stop shop for information about eating well. It houses the Australian Dietary Guidelines (2013) and includes a range of resources. |
| Visit the eat for health website
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Healthy Eating Advisory Service | |
| The Healthy Eating Advisory Service provides free information, training, menu assessments and support to help early childhood services provide and promote healthy foods and drinks. HEAS is run by Nutrition Australia Vic Division, with support from the Victorian Government. |
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Oral health newsletter inserts for early childhood services | |
| A series of inserts for early childhood services to use in newsletters for families to promote key oral health messages. Includes a how to use guide and images. |
| Read the oral health newsletter inserts [Word
- 981 KB]
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Suggested oral health story books | |
| These are just a few suggestions for books that will help you to introduce discussions with children about the importance of teeth and how to look after them. |
 Read the book list [PDF - 420 KB]
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Healthy Little Smiles in early childhood services | |
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| The Healthy Little Smiles education program consists of an oral health promotion resource kit and a two hour workshop for early childhood educators. The program supports long day care, family day care and kindergartens to engage children and families about oral health and embed oral health promotion within their services. For more information contact the Healthy Families, Healthy Smiles Team. |
| Please register to access the Healthy Little Smiles oral health resource kit
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Information for families
| Looking after your child’s mouth, teeth and gums [PDF - 1,969 KB]
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| Drink well, Eat well, Clean well tip cards
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| How to brush guide (includes denture care) [PDF - 534 KB]
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| How to brush your child's teeth guide [PDF - 669 KB]
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| Full DHSV resource library
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Useful links
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Related pages
| Top 10 oral health tips for pre school children |
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