Keep smiling with your local pharmacy

Oldham residents can now access advice and information on how to maintain good oral health from their local pharmacy.

Pharmacies already play an important role in improving people’s health and wellbeing.

But with this new access to oral health information, local residents can now learn more about how to best protect their teeth and gums before they end up reading about it in a dental practice waiting room – which can be too late for some.

Since January 2018, pharmacies across the borough have been getting training on how to best promote good oral health to their patients and customers.

This comes after Oral Health was identified as one of Greater Manchester’s six key Healthy Living Pharmacy campaigns for 2018.

As a result, 15 of Oldham’s participating pharmacies have since gone on to achieve the Oral Health Pharmacy Award in recognition of their efforts to support good oral health.

To get this award, local pharmacies had to meet specific criteria which includes promoting regular attendance at dentist check-ups using a local dental list and the NHS Choices website in addition to supplying and displaying oral health resources.

Pharmacies choosing to display confectionary or sugary drinks away from the point of sale, also had to dispense and promote sugar free medicine and products and have a designated Oral Health Champion.

The awards have been given out during National Smile Month which is the largest and longest-running campaign to promote good oral health – the campaign ends on Thursday, June 14.

Councillor Zahid Chauhan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care, said: “It’s really encouraging to see local pharmacies making a concentrated effort to promote good oral health.

"They are the cornerstone of our healthcare system and we’re thankful for their hard work.

“Oldham is making good strides to improve in this area.

"Our results in a recent national survey showed we’d made the biggest improvement in Greater Manchester regarding dental decay in five-year-olds, which is encouragement that our oral health strategy is succeeding.

“With further support from our local pharmacies, we will now push on even further in our efforts to ensure everyone in Oldham has a healthy smile.”

Training continues to be offered to other pharmacies who wish to provide oral health advice to patients and customers.

Pharmacies can also still apply for the Oral Health Pharmacy Award.