Staff, families and children at five local early childhood services are all smiles after receiving a Smiles 4 Miles award from Dental Health Services Victoria (DHSV).
Fish Creek Kindergarten, Inverloch Childcare, Phillip Island Early Learning Centre, Prom Coast Centres for Children Foster, and San Remo Preschool all completed the required criteria to achieve the award in 2024, demonstrating their commitment to improving oral health in the community.
Smiles 4 Miles is an initiative of DHSV which aims to improve the oral health of Victorian children and their families. The key messages promoted in Smiles 4 Miles are Drink well, Eat well and Clean well. The program is implemented locally by the South Coast Prevention Team (Health Promotion workforce of Bass Coast Health, Gippsland Southern Health Service and South Gippsland Hospital).
We all want our children to thrive. Unfortunately, children with tooth decay and poor oral health can have trouble eating, sleeping, and paying attention at kindergarten. Tooth decay, an oral disease, affects half of all children and adolescents. The percentage of children in Bass Coast and South Gippsland aged 3-5 attending public dental services who have at least one decayed, missing or filled tooth is 30% and 42% respectively, which is above the Victorian average rate.
Early childhood services achieve a Smiles 4 Miles award by implementing healthy eating and oral health policies, completing a menu assessment if they provide food, engaging with families about the importance of oral health, and educating children through a variety of fun learning experiences.
Foster Centre Director Sue Millet from Prom Coast Centres for Children was excited to see the service awarded.
She says “We were so excited for all our programs to be part of Smiles 4 Miles. This was a great opportunity to increase educator knowledge and skills about healthy eating and oral health, and share this information with our families and children.
“We were able to reflect on our program and practice to ensure we were embedding healthy eating and oral health experiences within a non-judgemental and respectful environment."
Paul Greenhalgh, Chief Executive Officer at South Gippsland Hospital, applauded the early childhood services for achieving the awards.
“Smiles 4 Miles awarded early childhood services are leading the way to help children form good healthy eating and oral health habits early," he said.
“By promoting healthy habits early in life, they are helping to set the foundations for local children to have a healthy start to life.”
Long day care centres, kindergartens and family day care providers in Bass Coast and South Gippsland shires can register to participate in Smiles 4 Miles by contacting prevention@basscoasthealth.org.au