The Dental Wellness Trust, a charity founded by dentist Linda Greenwall, is offering patients the chance to buy a Good Deed Toothbrush, designed by dentists, to help the 75% of children worldwide who do not have access to a toothbrush. For every brush sold an identical one will be given to a child somewhere in the world who does not have one.

This simple, philanthropic, new initiative will allow every dental practice in the UK to effortlessly help give away 30,000 toothbrushes this year with an aim of building this figure to 3 million in the years to come.

According to Dr Greenwall the aim is to create a simple transaction. Dr Greenwall said: 'We are advising the public that to get toothbrushes to a child in need, all they have to do is buy one for themselves from their dental practice. The money raised buys a brush for a child in the UK or the developing world who doesn't have access to even the most basic means of dental health.'

This is only a small part of the work carried out by the Dental Wellness Trust which includes providing supervised tooth brushing programmes for 1 million children in South Africa, and an evening programme called LiveSmart which aims to help 5,000 children clean up each night by providing them with brushes, toothpaste and soap (for which the organisation is lobbying for donations from oral health companies and hotels) and teaching them effective oral hygiene methods. Dentists from all over the world have donated their time to be involved, and the supervised brushing sessions have been shown to significantly improve both the oral and overall health of the participants. In the Philippines alone the programme was shown to have improved tooth care by 40% in one year.

The charity also works with elderly, disabled and marginalised people in the UK, Eastern Europe, Ghana, Ruwanda, South Africa and Israel to help improve their access to good oral health.

  • 75% of the world's children have no access to a toothbrush to clean their teeth.

  • A 49p toothbrush can make all the difference