You may remember that a few months ago, I told you about the Healthy Mouth Challenge which Colgate had challenged me to take. Now it's Oral Health month, they've asked me to be a "Healthy Mouth Ambassador" for their Healthy Mouth Mission . Now that Monkey is losing teeth, especially the more prominent ones (one of his front ones fell out - for which read he pulled out when it was slightly wobbly when he was bored going to sleep one night - during our holiday) it's becoming even more important to ensure that the children are looking after their teeth. Thankfully, we got the thumbs up from the dentist when I took the children in August. The dentist has got a bit of a thing about what toothpaste we're using for them to brush their teeth because I use one for 3-6 year olds but I have checked it and the fluoride content is very close to adult toothpaste. Still, it doesn't harm to try to get them onto adult toothpaste, especially as we end up with tubes of different toothpaste everywhere!
Something else that Colgate sent me was a map, showing which English regions excelled at oral health. The North West had the highest use of mouthwash (35%), the West Midlands is the best at visiting the dentist regularly (56%), the East of England have the most people with perfect oral health (a disturbingly low 20%), and in the South Central region, 79% brush their teeth twice a day or more. It doesn't bear thinking about the flipside - about how many DON'T brush their teeth, visit the dentist and have oral health that could be improved. Ewwww.... How do you match up against these stats?
If you want to learn more about the Colgate Healthy Mouth Mission, click the badge in the sidebar or follow this link, where the Healthy Mouth Challenge still resides if you want to have a go and find out how your oral health matches up to the standard, and perhaps raise some questions to ask your dentist next tiem you visit.