A MALVERN Link dental practice has supported the Chernobyl Children's Lifeline Charity for the eighth year running by looking after the teeth of the children based in Malvern.

Beacon DentalCare, 2015 winner of best practice in the Midlands, best team and best patient care at The Dentistry Awards, has provided dental care for the 12 children who are spending time in Malvern as guests of the charity.

Karen Sutton, dentist at Beacon DentalCare, said: "We are always delighted to help out the Chernobyl children when they come to Malvern. As a group they tend to have much worse teeth than our own children at the same age with lots of them having huge cavities in the grown up teeth already by the age of nine. It can be quite a shock to see how badly decayed their teeth are and it always makes me very emotional trying to do my little bit to help."

Dentist David Watson added: "Even though it has been many years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and some of these children’s parents weren’t born at the time, the radiation leak is still causing problems today. The kids we have seen tend to have very low levels of saliva, which means they are much more at risk of cavities and gum disease. This could be as a result of damage to their saliva glands form contamination of the environment where they live. They also live in a very socio-economically deprived area with little access to healthcare and basics such as toothpaste and brushes."

The Beacon practice team made the children feel welcome with colouring, and all of them were seen by the dentists and a hygienist, given basic dental care and taught toothbrushing techniques. They all left with a gift from the practice team too.