Dental Health Week ... one month to go!
The concept and theme for Dental Health Week (DHW) this August has been officially launched, and periodontal health has come to the fore. Read on for more information, resources and a sneak peek at the ‘look’ for this year’s event.
One of the key objectives of your ADA is the improvement of the oral and general health of the public, and one of the main ways we meet that goal is the ADA’s annual oral health flagship event, Dental Health Week (DHW). This year’s DHW will take place from Monday 5 through to Sunday 11 August, and this year the focus will be on the importance of gum health.
The decision to centre this year’s campaign on gum health, with the catchy phrase #Let’sTalkAboutGums accompanying our promotional efforts on all platforms, is driven by the responses in the 2023 ADA Consumer Survey. The survey revealed that Australian adults do not place enough importance on gum health and, in many cases, do not incorporate care for their gums into their overall daily oral hygiene routine.
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Evidence of this lack of attention to gum health is evident in the figures from the National Study of Adult Oral Health 2017/18 which revealed a significant increase in the number of
Australian adults aged 15 years and over with gum disease. A full one quarter of adults have periodontal pockets of 4mm or more, with the presence of gum disease increasing with age.
The 2024 DHW campaign will reinforce the importance of gum health, reiterating such messages as ‘healthy gums do not bleed’, as well as tackling other myths when it comes to gum health and care.
Maintaining a focus on gum health also allows us to include important messages about the close link between oral and systemic health that were a part of DHW 2023 into this year’s campaign.
Get equipped to get the message out
To help you make the most of your promotional efforts during DHW, we’ve assembled an expansive array of resources, which you will find displayed over the page with handy suggestions on their usefulness in any campaign you might like to mount.
Additional resources are available through the Oral Health Promotion Tookit and Teeth.org.au