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Posted on 29 Jul 2022

The Oral Health Promotion Team from Nottinghamshire Healthcare are delighted to have reached the finals of the new national Clinical Dentistry Awards, which celebrate clinical excellence in practice.

The team, known as the ‘Tooth Fairies’ have been shortlisted in the Best Local Oral Health Initiative (South) category in the awards run by the Dentistry publication.

Julia Wilkinson, Senior Health Promotion Specialist and Health, Wellbeing & Recovery Champion, said: “We’re thrilled and over the moon for our work to have been recognised in this way.

“The time of the pandemic has been so challenging for everyone, we’re proud to show the diversity of what we have been doing with our partners, focused around our multi-dimensional Brushing Buddies initiative.”

Brushing Buddies

Over the last year, the Oral Health Team has worked to create lots of opportunities to engage with local people and share the Brushing Buddies messages. The initiative was expanded to include:

• A new long-term training programme – the Tooth Friendly Award – for sites working with children
• New training for teacher training students or newly qualified teachers on the importance of good oral health – 3 modules
• A new health promotion training course for dental practitioners
• The Crunch – a new monthly e-bulletin to all sites working with children
• A new oral health leaflet for parents
• The #A Trip To The Dentist Together social media campaign.

The team also:

• Hosted Eatwell training sessions for staff working with families
• Delivered ‘Tales with the Tooth Fairy’ sessions for local schools (face-to-face and virtual)
• Delivered virtual ‘Buddy Visits the Dentist’ sessions for local early years settings
• Delivered virtual oral health promotional events
• Hosted a virtual support group – the Tooth Fairy Exchange – for all Oral Health Promotion teams across the UK
• Supported all the Brushing Buddies sites with supervised toothbrushing.

Julia added: “We are always looking for new ways to engage with audiences to break down the barriers to dentistry and raise awareness of the key oral health messages.

“We know that one size doesn’t fit all, so we have created a range of initiatives for dentistry professionals, teachers and parents, including a multitude of very popular training sessions to support local practitioners working with the community.

“Our aim is to reach priority population groups including those whose economic, social, environmental circumstances or lifestyle place them at high risk of poor oral health or make it difficult for them to access dental services. This could be pregnant women, babies, children and those within vulnerable settings.”

The inaugural Clinical Dentistry Awards ceremony will take place at the Royal Garden Hotel in London on 16 September 2022.