The return of National Smile Month
National Smile Month is set to return from May 18 through to June 18 this year, a national campaign to promote good oral health and improve the nation’s smiles. Run by the British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF), it remains the UK’s biggest dental health campaign, and aims to improve and educate ordinary people on oral health and how important maintaining good dental hygiene is.
Throughout the month, the initiative will be trying to convey three key aspects of basic oral hygiene: brushing your teeth just before bed, and at least one other time during the day; cutting down on the consumption of sugary foods and drinks; and regular visits to the dentist, paying attention to how often they’d like to see you.
2014’s campaign was a great success, surpassing achievements of the previous years. With over 750 media articles covering National Smile Month, and more than 3000 organisations showing an interest in the promotion of good oral health, the aim for this month is to go even further. Amazed at how many people get actively involved in National Smile Month each year, Nigel Carter OBE, chief executive of the BDHF, wants dentists and healthcare professionals to take up the challenge to do even more in 2015.
Having run for 39 years now, Carter says that the movement can look back through the years to the very first campaign and trace how National Smile Month has ‘coincided with some of the major oral health improvements in the UK’. Using the recently released and widely publicised data on children’s oral health as an example, Carter states that hardworking and dedicated dental professionals deserve credit for such improvements. Heading out into local communities during the month to raise awareness of dental health and educate people on good oral hygiene, they are responsible for better standards of dental health, and the hope is that if even more get involved with the campaign, we will only see more of these improvements.
