Early prevention: Promote dental care from an early age
The Waldeck-Frankenberg Youth Dental Care Working Group, whose management is in the hands of the district's Health Department, informs about a health-promoting pilot project in Hesse from which all parents of newborns will benefit. In future, mothers and fathers will not only receive the so-called "yellow booklet" for the preventive check-ups of their children at birth. A dental check-up booklet for children will also be issued automatically. The joint and pilot project of the State Medical Association of Hesse and the State Dental Association of Hesse, among others, is unique in Germany.
In this context, the State Working Group on Youth Dental Care in Hesse has developed a colouring sheet for kindergarten children and is organising a competition. Here on site in Waldeck-Frankenberg, the Youth Dental Care Working Group is in charge of the campaign - at the beginning of the new kindergarten year, all day-care centres in the district received a notice together with the necessary documents. Every day-care centre group from which 80 percent of all children have visited a dentist will receive the book "Komm mit mir zum Zahnarzt!", financed by the Arbeitskreis Jugendzahnpflege, if they participate in the competition until 31 July 2022. The campaign is supported by the Sparkasse Battenberg, for the kindergartens in the upper Eder valley.
The Waldeck-Frankenberg Youth Dental Care Working Group and First District Councillor and Head of Health Karl-Friedrich Frese are calling for active participation in the campaign. Preventive check-ups are one of the most important preventive measures in childhood and, according to the children's guideline revised in 2016, should include a preventive visit to the dentist six times in a row from U5 onwards. The competition for the new children's examination booklets in a double pack can help to ensure that more than 36 per cent of children aged between 30 and 72 months currently take advantage of the dental screening examinations... and that there are more and more healthy children with many healthy milk teeth.