What do we do?
The award winning Oral Health Improvement team are commissioned by NHS England/Improvement to support any professionals or charities caring for vulnerable adults and all children in the geographical area of Essex (including Southend and Thurrock). We can therefore provide oral health training and advice to these professionals- all free of charge.
Our team will co-ordinate and support a range of evidence-based interventions to reduce oral health inequalities and promote better oral health within a variety of community groups. Oral health is everyone’s responsibility, therefore training is available to health and non-health professionals.
What training do we offer?
Our tailored training will help the professional gain knowledge in oral care and enhance confidence and skills when delivering mouth care. This includes information on areas such as brushing, diet, dental visits and key oral health guidelines. Our training packages include:
For those Working with Children
Childminders
Please pre-register by completing the Microsoft Form here.
For those Working with Children with Additional Needs (CWAN)
Please pre-register by completing the Microsoft Form here.
Care Teams/Those Working with Adults with Additional Needs (AWAN)
Please pre-register by completing the Microsoft Form here.
All training will provide a certificate on completion with CPD minutes.
One of the three important steps to good oral health is visiting a dentist.
This can be a daunting experience for someone who has never visited before. To help with this Essex CDS have recorded special 360 videos to show you what their clinics look like.
These videos will help you familiarise yourself with a dental surgery so it wont feel as daunting when you arrive. Each video shows the reception area and surgery.
How to use these videos – take your time looking around at each area. Click on the spots to get some extra information and even some welcomes from our CDS staff!
Don’t worry if you’re not visiting a surgery in Essex, all of our surgeries have the same equipment so although it wont be exactly the same you will be able to recognise lots of things from the videos in your local surgery.
The link to the virtual tour of each clinic in Essex, can be found at the bottom of each clinic page.
Have fun exploring!
Community Dental Services
Witham Health Centre
4 Maryland Road
Witham
CM8 2UX
Email: claire.hobbs@cds-cic.co.uk
Community Dental Services
Witham Health Centre
4 Maryland Road
Witham
CM8 2UX
Email: toyah.khan@cds-cic.co.uk
Foundation Degree in Health and Social Care (Clinical)
Associate Practitioner
QCF Award in Vocational Assessment (D32/33)
QCF Award in Internal Quality Assurance/Assessment Processes and Practice
Email: tasha.King@cds-cic.co.uk
Email: sam.linnell@cds-cic.co.uk
How do we provide training?
Who do we work with?
We regularly work with professionals from nurseries and schools (including SEN schools) providing general oral health training. We can also support settings to achieve our Healthy Smiles Accreditation which can include guidance on setting up our supervised toothbrushing programme.
We also work closely with many care homes and can provide training for those working with older people, adults with additional needs and end of life care. We can also offer care settings who have completed our general oral health training the opportunity to work towards our Life Long Smiles Accreditation and can provide further training for anyone wishing to become an Oral Health Champion within their setting.
How else can we help?
Please contact us if you would like further information. We will usually respond to requests within 7 working days. Please email us at: ohimp.Essex@cds-cic.nhs.uk
The Healthy Smiles award programme supports services working with young and primary school children to adopt tooth-friendly practices. By implementing the five Healthy Smiles standards, each participating setting helps to;
Free training is provided by the Oral Health Improvement team to support the staff teams taking part in the award. In some settings the Healthy Smiles + accreditation standards will require supervised tooth brushing or a food audit to be completed.
