It was smiles all around at Holmes Family Dental on Friday when they held their Children’s Dental Day.

The practice was fully booked and experienced local dentist Dr Isabel Holmes said Children’s Dental Days were held twice a year during school holidays where appointments were exclusively reserved for youngsters.

“We pride ourselves on having friendly and welcoming staff for everyone, but we take the opportunity to just book in children on these days,” Dr Holmes said.

“We really want to promote children’s dentistry and make it a fun and exciting experience for the kids.”

Dentists, dental assistants and receptionists dressed in fun outfits and children received a party bag filled with dental-related goodies including novelty toys, colouring in books and bendy tooth brushes.

“We really want to make them feel comfortable,” Dr Holmes said.

“We’re really focusing on prevention and education particularly for the children, and the parents as well.”

Dr Holmes said the practice was trying to help reduce the tooth decay rate in children, which is on the rise in Australia.

Kids aged 5-10 years have, on average, one and a half decayed, missing or filled baby teeth and 1 in 4 have untreated tooth decay.

Dr Holmes said children should visit the dentist from age one or within six months of their first tooth appearing and it was important to establish regular tooth brushing routines, brush twice a day and introduce an age-appropriate toothpaste from 18 months of age.

Pparents should clean babies’ teeth as soon as they appear and avoid putting babies to bed with a bottle as this can cause ‘bottle tooth decay.

The practice also wanted to advise the importance of a healthy, balanced diet and avoiding food and drink with added sugars.

Dr Holmes said the practice participated in the Child Dental Benefits Schedule.

The government will fund up to $1013 towards dental treatments over two calendar years for children eligible for Medicare, aged 2-17 and children or parents receiving an eligible Centrelink payment.

Visit www.holmesfamilydental.com.au for further information.