Every day, those of us within the dental industry fight the good fight to raise awareness of better oral hygiene practices and to encourage our patients to take their dental health more seriously. Be it flossing and brushing, or avoiding sugary snacks and drinks, there are lots of things which we do so often that they become second nature to us – teeth and oral health are central to our thoughts. But our patients? Not so much. They need help – our help.
That is why each year is filled with special opportunities to raise awareness that little bit more. There are numerous events that we can use to engage our patients and to get our professional knowledge out there even more than we already do, and they are also excellent ways to build team rapport and get everyone working collectively towards the same end goal. You just need to know when, what, and how – and this article is here to help.
National Children’s Dental Health Month –1st February to 28th February
The year starts with National Children’s Dental Health Month, which is run by the American Dental Association (ADA). It’s the perfect opportunity to get those little minds ticking curiously away about dentistry. Children’s minds are very much like sponges, which means that they are likely to take in any information they are given – and are likely to strive to understand it and then discuss it with their peers.
Why is this month so important? Because the younger children are when we begin to raise their awareness of dental health and good oral hygiene, the better chance they have of a future with optimal oral stability. We can encourage good lifelong habits whilst the patients are still young, and we can do that in a few different ways.
To start, why not get in touch with your local primary schools and see about doing a dental-themed visit? The sessions only need to be 10–20 minutes long per class or set of children, and you can use the time to:
- Introduce yourselves – try to take along a dentist, a nurse, and a manager, so that you can all say a sentence or two about your work. But keep it short! You don’t want to overload those little minds with too much information.
- Do a demonstration – perhaps one of you can use a disclosing tablet after a drink to show the effects, or you could take visual aids such as an oversized toothbrush and teeth to show how to brush properly.
- Ask questions – a quick, fun quiz is a great way to test their knowledge and see what they’ve taken in.
- Play some games – you could give them paper pictures (one of a big tooth and a few of a variety of different foods) and get them to lay the ‘good’ foods on the tooth.
- Goodie bags! Make it a day to remember with some goodie bags (which are always much-loved). They can be filled with children’s sample toothpastes, toothbrushes, dental-themed sheets such as pictures to colour, wordsearches, or toothbrushing charts, stickers, and maybe timers or tooth-shaped rubbers.
If school visits are not an option, then why not offer a day for children’s check-ups where they get a free gift for attending? You can alter your waiting room for just this one day and fill it with child-friendly themes; you could play a children’s film on the TV if you have one, or play children’s music, and replace any reading material with books or colouring sheets and crayons. This can be advertised on social media, in schools, or in local community halls with posters. It helps to encourage children and their parents to start visiting the dentist, as it’s a fun place to be!
And, of course, do not forget the power of social media! Fire up Facebook and tend to TikTok, because social media posts full of information about the event, along with oral health do’s and don’ts and other fun facts, can be a great way to build engagement with your patients. It gets your practice name out there, and you’ll quickly become more noticeable in your area because of your online presence.
No Smoking Day – 8th March
At each check-up appointment, we should all be doing our part to encourage our patients to quit smoking, and No Smoking Day is a great time to drive that thought home.
Smoking is a big cause of gum disease and oral cancer, along with having other negative impacts on life through health and finances. By raising awareness during appointments and by making posts surrounding the event on social media, we can support the cause to stop smoking and encourage others to do the same. Try having a countdown to the day on your website or social media page, with the challenge to cut down 1 cigarette per day in the lead up to No Smoking Day – you may be surprised by how many people appreciate the encouragement and support.
Make sure you have smoking cessation advice to hand too. This can be in the form of leaflets, local support groups, website links, or whatever is available to your practice and can give your patients the help they need.
World Oral Health Day – 20th March
May the world unite!
World Oral Health Day is all about working collaboratively to reduce the burden of oral diseases, and it’s held across the world! From the UK to Ukraine, Hungary to India, plenty of countries are taking part to raise awareness and spread the word on how to improve our oral health, and you can take part too. Simply jump on over to their website at https://www.worldoralhealthday.org/, where you’ll find lots of handy resources to get you planning for the big day. These include a helpful countdown timer to when the big day arrives and an activity tracker so you can see what others are doing all the world over. Plan ahead with your team and add your activities to the tracker, then share this with your patients!
Need activity ideas? Look no further! There are lots to try, such as:
- School visits – hold talks and demonstrations at your local schools.
- Social Media Campaigns – spread the word online with hashtags and frequent posts.
- Team Support – get the team involved by sharing photos of their smiles or videos of them flossing and brushing, and tie it into this year’s theme from the World Oral Health Day website – LOOK AFTER YOUR ORAL HEALTH FOR A LIFETIME OF SMILES – by going from young smiles through to old!
And make sure to engage the rest of your team – they might have ideas that you’d never have thought of, and utilising their skills is a valuable asset that can really drive a practice towards excellence. Let them be a part of it!
National Smile Month – 16th May to 16th June
The biggest month of the year is, of course, National Smile Month! This is an excellent time to really drum up awareness and interaction with your team, your patients, and in your social circles. From colleagues to family, patients and friends, anyone and everyone you talk to can be a part of this month.
National Smile Month is all about tackling oral health inequality, and we can do that by taking the time to tend to the patients who may be less able to visit us. Be it through visits to care homes to give demonstrations and some samples of toothpaste and Fixodent, or through school visits to encourage children to look after their teeth, we can make a huge difference with our whole team just by being more present. Start the discussion with your colleagues today, and brainstorm ideas of how you can help out. If you head on over to https://www.dentalhealth.org/Listing/Site/national-smile-month/Category/whats-on, there are plenty of ideas to get you started – but here are a few that you and your team can get involved in to make the month fun and approachable for you all, while also building that great team energy:
- Decorate your practice for the month! With colour-themed balloons and photos of all kinds of smiles, you can show your patients any time they visit that there is an event on.
- Reach out to the local community for visits to schools and care homes to raise awareness and take some lovely photos.
- Use your social media pages to do fun things like the flossing dance on TikTok, or a collage of smiles on Instagram, and invite patients to share their own attempts.
And don’t forget – Wednesday 5th of June will see the Great British Brushathon! People from all over the world are invited to share photos and videos of them brushing their teeth on social media – the more, the merrier! This is an easy one that we can all take part in; after all, we brush our teeth every day, and this is the perfect way to show others how we do it. Visit https://www.dentalhealth.org/the-great-british-brushathon for more information on this exciting event.
Mouth Cancer Action Month – November
The year ends with another month-long event, and this is one that we can do even more for. So far, we have had lots of demonstrations at schools and plenty of ideas for raising oral hygiene awareness, but something that many patients don’t know is how to spot the signs of oral cancer – and that, of course, is where we come in.
Throughout November, spread the word and make the local community aware that you are available for free oral cancer checks. This doesn’t have to be a full check-up, but it can be something that non-registered patients can attend for a short five minutes, just so they have peace of mind and advice on what to look out for. For registered patients, remind them that their examination includes the oral cancer check, and encourage them to make an appointment.
Make it clear that there is an event on by decorating your practice with Mouth Cancer Action balloons and posters, and use the resources over at https://www.dentalhealth.org/mouthcancer to source materials you can share with the team and the public. More than that, you can use the same resources to create online content – videos, photos, and general posts – so that your followers are aware of what the month’s event is, and you can invite them to take part.
And don’t forget the value of the local community. Many dental practices are chosen because they are close to people’s homes, or because they have always been a particular family’s dental practice, and it brings a sense of community where they are happy to take part and help out – especially with fundraisers. You can use the local social media groups to let them know what you’re doing, from a bake sale to a sponsored run, and invite them to come along to the practice and join in, or to do so remotely online.
A parting note
As a dental team, our work is vital to the improvement of oral health standards, and these events spread throughout the year provide us with ample opportunity to not only raise valuable awareness, but to also connect with our patients on a more personal level through showing that we care about them and their health. Together, we are able to shape a brighter future where oral diseases are less common, and the public have access to better and more reliable information.
As a dental nurse, it’s easy to ask how you can help and what you can do because you don’t feel you can make a difference, but I’m here to tell you that every single one of you counts. Whether you’re letting your social circles know, or sharing the posts from your practice page, you can make a difference. Ask your manager if you can take charge of organising the events, and chat to patients to share your knowledge and advice in ways they can relate to – because, more often than not, the patient needs someone reassuring who they feel is more ‘like them’ than a dentist, and our words are much more powerful than you may think.
Written by Natasha Garthwaite BSc, RDN