In the midst of a staff shortage, teachers and educators will supervise tooth brushing

In the program drawn up by the ministry it is foreseen that “the person supervising the toothbrush must be present at every stage of supervised brushing”.

The educator or teacher must ensure that students wash their hands before and after the operation, that there are no more than two at the same time in the same sink, and that the toothbrushes do not come into contact with each other.

“Mission Impossible”

In the school network it is believed that the implementation of this initiative is completely “unrealistic”.

“We are already having trouble having the staff in place to adequately ensure the safety of the students, if we have to add this, it won’t work,” says Carol-Anne Dupré, head of a daycare service at an elementary school in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region. .

“It’s a mission impossible,” adds Line Camerlain, vice president of Quebec central unions. Has the writer of this program ever set foot in a school?

In many contexts, students only have 30 minutes for lunch before having to make room for the next group, and there is often already congestion in the toilets, M points out.^myself chamberlain.

With staff shortages, educators now have to take care of 30 students, instead of 20, when a colleague is absent. In this context, it is difficult to imagine how an educator could supervise the brushing of the teeth of every student in his group. “Is it really a school to do it?” asks the vice president of the CSQ.

No, the school administrators reply. “It is going too far,” says Nicolas Prévost, president of the Federation of Directors of Educational Institutions of Quebec (FQDE).

In addition to being “unrealistic,” the implementation of this program could also have side effects on school staff, who are already out of breath, he adds.

“We talk about shortages, but when we always add a layer, that’s what makes us lose teachers, educators and school leaders,” says Prévost.

A “shared responsibility”

The Ministry of Health argues that students’ dental health “has not improved significantly since the late 1990s,” while controlled tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste has been shown to reduce tooth decay.

“The integration of healthy lifestyle habits in terms of dental health into the living environments of young people is a shared collective responsibility, and this, in the same way as the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits in terms of nutrition and physical activity in schools” adds its spokesperson, Robert Maranda.

Too many early cavities

Why is it necessary to brush your teeth in school, according to public health?

Here are some extracts from the letter from the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale sent to the school network:

■ “More than half of 2nd year primary school students already have dental caries. Furthermore, despite the preventive measures already in place, this percentage has not decreased since the 1990s.

■ “This worrying situation demonstrates the importance of intensifying our actions, from an early age, with children”.

■ “Starting this year, we will prioritize a recognized more effective, equitable and universal approach to preventing cavities upstream.”

■ “Brushing your teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste is an essential step in maintaining good dental health. For some vulnerable children, brushing in the school setting will actually be the only brushing of the day.

■ “Tooth brushing (…) is an effective preventive practice against dental caries (reduction of 24%). It is also useful for reducing social inequalities in dental health ”.