A scheme to keep babies and toddlers smiling has been introduced in Keighley.

Bradford and Airedale Community Dental Service is encouraging parents in the Keighley area to register children aged up to two years with a family dentist as part of its Never Too Soon To Register Initiative.

Dental registration co-ordinators Anne Wilkinson and Joanne Nykol visited Boots in the Airedale Centre on Friday to provide information about the initiative that is designed to reduce a child's chances of developing tooth decay at a later date.

The oral health of children in the Bradford district is among the worst in the Northern and Yorkshire health region, with 61 per cent of five-year-olds experiencing tooth decay.

Anne Wilkinson says: "We are encouraging parents from all parts of the community who have children aged from birth to two years old to attend the dentist with the assistance of health visitors.

"At the eight-month assessment, when dental information is routinely given, health visitors are actively referring parents to register their child with a dentist.

"It is never too soon and never too late to join up with a dentist and there are a lot of practices in the Keighley and Ilkley area who support this campaign.

"Mothers get free dental health care for the first 12 months after giving birth and we feel this is an excellent time for youngsters to be taken along and registered so they can get used to the sounds, smells and equipment in a surgery.

"We are also encouraging the use of a toothbrush and toothpaste as soon as a child's first tooth erupts," she adds.

The proportion of children (up to 18-year-olds) who attend a dentist in the Bradford district is substantially lower than the national average, with only 17 per cent of those up to two years old registered, compared to 21 per cent in the whole of England.

Organisers of the two-year project, which has been funded with cash from Bradford Health Action Zone, hope it will have a similar effect to other schemes in Thameside and Glossop that doubled registrations.

For more information about the scheme and a list of participating family dentists' in the Keighley area contact Anne Wilkinson or Joanne Nykol on 01274 223936.