Facing braces with a little help from Lego

Two life-size Lego heads will illustrate mouths  ‘before’ and ‘after’ orthodontic treatment in a new week-long campaign to raise awareness of tooth-straightening treatment.

The plastic brick constructions will be unveiled at the launch of the British Orthodontic Society’s second National Orthodontic Week (NOW) this month (22-28 February).

They will be on display at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London, the venue for the launch of the dental campaign.

A competition will be held during the event to encourage visitors to  guess the number of Lego bricks it took to build both faces.

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The launch will be followed by a week-long event at the museum during half term, when the gallery is visited by over 2,000 people a day.

During the week members of the public will be able to ‘Meet an Orthodontist’ and find out more about orthodontic treatment.
 
The focus for NOW 2011 will be young people and during the campaign the BOS aims to highlight the problems of dealing with protruding teeth.

Two young winners of its annual Against the Odds event, who both had to overcome seemingly insurmountable problems related to their protruding teeth, will be acting as figureheads for the campaign and it is hoped their success stories will inspire others to seek help.
 
A short NOW film is being produced which features interviews with these young orthodontic patients, and other young people who have had their lives changed by orthodontic treatment, and also features interviews with orthodontists who explain the issues and benefits of orthodontic treatment.

A survey is currently being conducted by YouGov which will canvass the public about their attitudes towards protruding teeth and should produce some interesting statistics, which will be released at the launch event.

In addition, a host of national and local radio and press interviews will be carried out at the launch of the campaign and these will provide journalists with the news angle on which to base their articles.
 
The NOW website – www.nowsmile.org – has been refreshed and a range of new initiatives have been developed to encourage an even greater number of visitors.

Competition lovers will be drawn to the recipe challenge on the site which is designed to encourage people to come up with delicious brace-friendly dishes.

The NOW website features a Find Orthodontic Treatment section which links them to the main BOS site and allows anyone interested to find the contact details of their nearest orthodontists. 

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