HABIT Oral Health Training/resources from University of Leeds

HABIT is a collection of resources and training that supports Health Visitors, and their wider team, to have effective oral health conversations with parents of young children. We aim to enable parents to establish and implement key oral health habits in infancy; thereby improving children's oral health. Initially funded by the Medical Research Council, HABIT was co-designed with parents and Health Visitors across Bradford.

The intervention is underpinned by robust behaviour change theory (including systematic reviews, qualitative interviews, intervention mapping and community engagement).

We have shown that HABIT is acceptable to parents, feasible to be delivered by Health Visitors and leads to the adoption of key oral health habits by parents of infants. 

By the end of the session, learners will be able to: 

• Understand the key oral health challenges in Bradford and recent national guidance.
• Recognise the role of early years professionals in supporting oral health conversations.
• Apply core behaviour change and communication techniques to engage families.
• Explore practical strategies for responding to resistance and supporting small changes.
• Utilise the HABIT resources in everyday practice.

The HABIT Website contains videos, oral health resources and access to research.

Videos

Here you can find the following videos:

• Toothbrushing Demonstration
• Example Visits (Roleplay)
• HABIT Webinar

Oral health resources

Here you can find relevant and up to date oral health information, collected in one place. This page is designed to be bookmarked for future use, should you need quick access to evidence based guidance.

HABIT research

Here you can find the research to support our HABIT intervention.