Teeth Team started in 2010 when local dental practices, the salaried dental services and a dental supply company shared concerns about the extremely high incidence of dental decay in local children. Joining forces, they created the programme to make a difference to the dental health of young children living in their area, until the salaried dental services had to leave the partnership in 2013 due to service constraints.
In 2017, Teeth Team won the first ever ‘Outstanding Innovation’ award from the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry. BSPD’s remit is improving children’s oral health, and this award was designed to recognise ‘excellent work undertaken by dental team members in support of children’s oral health’ and the executive panel judged Teeth Team’s ‘excellent project to be the clear winner’. The award was testament to years of hard work and dedicated support by everyone involved in Teeth Team.
In January 2018, Teeth Team presented its annual report in Westminster, including an address by the Rt Hon Alan Johnson, former Home Secretary, former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and former MP for Hull West and Hessle.
The Teeth Team Programme is now a well-established and nationally recognised child dental health improvement initiative, which is facilitated within the City of Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire. The existing partners continue to facilitate and develop Teeth Team’s charitable work and are delighted to report the programme has grown significantly over time, gaining increasing support from additional partners, individuals and independent organisations who have given their endorsement.
The programme has been so successful that it has been adopted as a template by the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), who commissioned Teeth Team to build a prevention, accessibility and treatment programme, rolled out in 2024.
Notwithstanding its huge success, Teeth Team relies exclusively on grants and donations from charitable trusts and foundations, as well as donations from the public, and receives no government funding.
