Oral health campaign gains momentum

An oral health campaign that created colourful, high impact billboard posters in Stoke-on-Trent in 2018 to influence the eating habits of young people in the city is going from strength to strength.

The KeepStokeSmiling campaign's aim was to highlight the importance of teeth and looking after them in an area with some of the highest rates of dental decay in children and young adults in the country [Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire]. It was initiated by the orthodontic team at the University Hospitals of the North Midlands (UNHM) who teamed up with students at Newcastle under Lyme and Stafford Colleges.

Consultant Orthodontist at The Royal Stoke University Hospital, Miss Karen Juggins, said: 'If we really want to deliver information about oral health and orthodontics to teenagers, we need to put it on a screen. We recruited celebrities to our cause, including ex-England footballer Peter Crouch, athlete Colin Jackson, and scientist and politician Professor Lord Winston, among others. This has helped KeepStokeSmiling reach around 1,500 followers across five social media platforms. Each platform has a slightly different target audience. All are highly effective at getting our message across'.

The latest campaign is 'Fizz-Free Schools'. In conjunction with the local council and dental public health team, a 'Fizz-Free tool-kit' has been developed which will be sent to all local schools. Advertising giants JCDecaux have agreed to support this campaign which will see new billboards and oral health messages on JCDecaux-owned street furniture in the city. Once established in Stoke and Staffordshire, it is hoped it will become a national model that can be copied by other NHS Trusts, councils or dental public health teams.

Other hospital orthodontic departments around the country have started to follow Stoke's lead - including Derby, Oxford, Burton, Chesterfield, Sheffield and Dorset and Stafford. By promoting rather than preaching oral health messages to young people, it is hoped these individuals will make the decision to look after their teeth.

Twitter: @KeepGBsmiling. #keepbritainsmiling #fizzfreeschools.