The overarching goal of Healthy Smiles Healthy Kids was to improve the oral health literacy of socio-economically disadvantaged parents with young children. An innovative promotion package was developed and piloted in partnership with disadvantaged and culturally diverse families. It involved multidisciplinary partnerships to promote maternal and child oral health literacy.
Results showed significant improvement in maternal oral health knowledge and practices, utilisation of child dental services (75 per cent after three years; 65 per cent after six years), and oral health-related quality of life. Only ten per cent of children were reported to have dental decay by age 2.5-3.5 years and 15 per cent by age 4-5 years (significant improvement since a national survey reported 45 per cent of children of similar age have dental decay).
