National Smile Month 2012 gets a ‘high street’ boost

National Smile Month 2012 is getting some major high street companies and best-known brands on board its campaign.

Aimed at helping a nation improve its oral health, it’s feeling the love from such comapnies as Wrigley’s Extra, Oral-B, Listerine, Steradent, Bupa, Denplan, Dencover, Lloyds Pharmacy, Aldi, Wilkinson and SleepRight.

Despite major improvements in recent decades, millions of people in the UK are still affected by poor oral health.

It is estimated that a third of all children starting school have tooth decay; three in every ten adults suffer from regular dental pain and over four-fifths of the population have at least one filling.

More also needs to be done to improve the nation’s oral health habits. It is estimated that a quarter of adults don’t brush their teeth twice a day and around a quarter of all adults say they have not visited a dentist in the past two years.

National Smile Month, which runs from 20 May to 20 June 2012, is organised by UK charity the British Dental Health Foundation.

Water, water

In 2012, the campaign is also promoting a water-saving message in partnership with Save Water Save Money and 19 water companies.

The British Dental Health Foundation’s Director of Campaigns and Fundraising, Simon Howell said: ‘This year, we have received incredible interest in National Smile Month and we would like to thank all of our sponsors for their educational grants and generous charitable support. Their involvement means millions of people in the UK will be encouraged to improve their oral health and the many benefits this brings.’

James Fulton from Listerine said: ‘Listerine are proud to partner with the British Dental Health Foundation to support National Smile Month 2012. We are dedicated to improving oral hygiene in the UK and think that National Smile Month is a great way to get people thinking about the importance of a good oral hygiene routine. We look forward to working together to delivering another successful campaign this year!’

Jane Kidson, Oral-B Professional Oral Health Country Leader UK & Ireland, said: ‘Oral-B are delighted to be working with the British Dental Health Foundation again in their common aim to improve dental health in the UK. Oral-B applauds the Foundation for their efforts and implores dental professionals, the media and manufacturers to all do their bit to get behind the campaign and promote better oral health.’

Hamish Thomson, Wrigley UK General Manager said: ‘We are proud to, once again, be a Platinum Sponsor of National Smile Month in 2012. Our ‘Eat, Drink, Chew’ message is all about driving awareness of the dental benefits of chewing Extra sugarfree gum after eating and drinking. So we are very excited to be involved with such an important and successful event for promoting oral health in the UK.’

The symbol of this year’s campaign is the Smiley and everyone can find out more about the campaign, and how to improve oral health at www.smilemonth.org.

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