NHS Forth Valley
NHS Forth Valley

Oral Health – Substance Misuse

Local Guidance / Oral Health – Substance Misuse
This information is for pharmacies and health professionals in Forth Valley. For patient information please visit NHS Forth Valley.

Oral Health – Substance Misuse

Smile4life seeks to build capacity, through training, to enable health and social care staff and support workers to provide oral health messages to meet the specific needs of the people they work with.

The fundamentals required to maintain oral health include access to healthy foods, being able to carry out regular toothbrushing and regular dental attendance. For some, circumstances and situations such as homelessness, inequality, substance misuse and poor mental wellbeing makes meeting these primary factors difficult and this can have a significant impact on the individual. It is well evidenced that poor oral health affects overall general health, nutrition, quality of life, confidence, communication, appearance and employment opportunities.

Smile4life therefore aims to raise awareness of oral health and equip staff with knowledge and skills to support oral health improvement.

Through attendance at Smile4life training staff will gain knowledge of the oral health issues, risk factors and barriers experienced and have knowledge and the skills to provide tailored oral health information to the people they work with.

“Good oral health amongst homeless people is about far more than teeth. It affects self confidence, the ability to get a job and in some cases the ability to move out of homelessness. It’s not the first thing that anyone thinks about to help someone out of homelessness but it can make a huge difference to people’s lives.” – Robert Aldridge, Chief Executive for Homeless Action Scotland

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