POUNDBURY Dental Practice is opening its doors to children and their families for an afternoon they can get their teeth into.

As part of National Smile Month, the practice, which has been open since 2004, is offering an afternoon of advice and tips on how to look after children’s teeth so that they can progress into adulthood cavity free.

Tim Warren, practice manager, said that according to statistics from the British Dental Health Foundation, one in seven people suffer with severe dental anxiety and that they are very keen to get children visiting the dentists as their first teeth develop so that they can feel at ease with going to the dentists.

He added that statistics said that one in three 12 year-old were not free from visible decay and that it was important that children were brought to a dentist regularly.

“We’ll be giving away stickers and free samples and encouraging them to take part in oral health education activities.” He said.

Dentist Hillary Warren-Simmons has been practicing in Weymouth for approximately 30 years.

She said: “The children we see at our practice are brought in by their parents regularly.

She added that it was the children they don’t see that they wanted to encourage to come along to their event.

“Children need to be educated as to how to get the plaque off their teeth.

The event is at the practice today between 2.30pm and 4.30pm.