In her four years at Rowley School in Christchurch, Erina Coleman has seen plenty of kids with sore mouths.
It’s hard for the teacher to watch the six- and seven-year-olds suffer from tooth decay. The disease – New Zealand’s most prevalent – is connected to poor brushing, meaning it’s entirely preventable.
But now, Coleman’s class is at the forefront a new pilot hoping to make a change.
"We don’t like to see them hurting," she told 1News today.
"If there’s something we can do to help, then school’s a great way to do that."
The programme is led by the charitable trust Byte, with the idea of making brushing a fun daily activity for schoolkids.
It’s donated enough toothbrushes and toothpaste for 10 weeks. If the pilot proved successful, the trust hoped it could one day be expanded to all schools across the country.
“If we can support people to brush their teeth twice a day from a young age, we might be able to start seeing the high numbers of decay in teeth reduce,” Byte founder Steve Manning said.
Early intervention a big challenge
A pilot programme has children brushing their teeth at a Christchurch school. (Source: 1News)
The hope was to intervene early, introducing a habit that would stick for life – but it’s a big challenge.
The most recent data available from the Ministry of Health indicated many New Zealand children already had problems with their teeth by the time they started school.
In 2022, more than 33,000 children aged five years old were examined. Dentists found just over 66,000 decayed, missing, or filled teeth – the equivalent of almost two for every child.
Rates were worse among Māori and Pasifika children, with an average of three affected teeth.
Around 8000 kids were treated under a general anaesthetic every year, according to Martin Lee, a dental public health specialist at Te Whatu Ora.
“Little cavities turn into big cavities, which turn into abscesses, which turn into little trainwrecks for thousands and thousands of kids around the country every year,” he said.
But at Rowley School, the children were taking to brushing with copious amounts of enthusiasm.
The youngsters each had their own toothbrushes, marked by name. They sat together around a table and got to work as a group, while a teacher played a song encouraging them to "brush every day and every night".
Byte hoped others will follow their example: brushing twice a day, for two minutes, and spitting the toothpaste out without rinsing.
Six-year-old Harmony MacGregor-Bell had advice to pass on to kids at other schools.
"After you eat, you have to brush your teeth," she said. "You don’t want any germs in your mouth."
Her classmate, Roman Saptoka, agreed with gusto.
"You can brush your teeth, and it can be all clean," he said.
Asked how he felt after he brushed, one word came to mind: "Shiny."
And then showed off his smile.
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