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    Help us to Keep Britain Smiling

    The most common reason for a child under 10 to visit A&E in the UK is due to a dental issue. Keep Britain Smiling’s aim is to improve this dismal statistic.

    The campaign is social media and community-driven and looks to target children, teenagers and young adults to encourage and promote the benefits of looking after their teeth.

    Where it all started

    It all started when @KeepStokeSmiling was launched by Consultant Orthodontist, Dr Karen Juggins and her team in 2018 after seeing the devastating effects of sugary drinks on her young patients. Since then, the campaign has gone from strength to strength evolving into now what has become @KeepBritainSmiling.

    Join our campaign

    It’s fabulous that you want to be part of the KeepBritainSmiling campaign. You may have seen on Instagram that many other hospitals have joined already. The key message is to promote oral health and orthodontics in your local area, but with a link to a national campaign supported by The British Orthodontic Society, The British Dental Association and The Royal College of Surgeons of England. What started as a small local project to engage teenagers and young people has become a national movement, with real potential to encourage the next generation to have a smile to be proud of!

    Getting Started

    Before you do anything we advise you talk to your hospital Communications team or practice Principal/Manager. They need to support you joining the campaign and will help guide you through local social media policies and procedures. You can direct them to look at KeepStokeSmiling (Instagram/Facebook) or KeepManchesterSmiling (Instagram) to see the idea and content.

    KeepStokeSmiling has been live since January 2018 and they have posted more than 1000 oral health messages, stories and videos. The resource proved an invaluable way of communicating ever changing information with patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and is now one of the most popular ways they educate their patients about oral health, orthodontics and orthognathic surgery.

    Next Steps

    Once you have decided to start your own campaign, you will need to get a small team together to help you come up with ideas and to create content. You can use other campaigns for inspiration and remember to include lots of images, videos and helpful advice. You will need to start some social media accounts and we suggest you might find Instagram the easiest to get started. Create a channel called ‘Keep[insert your town or city]Smiling’ and make sure you let plenty of people know. You can do this with posters and by sharing your social media accounts as links on emails. Also remember to tag other campaigns and @KeepBritainSmiling in your posts so your great content can be shared.

    Let's go Fizz Free

    We are campaigning to encourage all schools to go sugar free. We know this is a big ask but we think it would be a massive achievement.

    The first stage is the Fizz Free pledge which means the school agrees that there should be no fizzy or carbonated drinks sold or consumed in school grounds. No fizzy drinks are to be sold in the canteens or vending machines and none are allowed in packed lunches.

    It’s a big change we know, but it’s really important if we want to save both the dental health and the general health of our children and teenagers. We hope our campaign will highlight the serious risk fizzy and sugary drinks pose on oral health and maybe, save some teeth.

    Our Posters and Resources

    We have included some posters and other resources to help you get started. The posters were designed by the Newcastle and Stafford College Group students and we would be grateful if you could please credit them if you use their images.

    You will also find the Keep Britain Smiling logo, an example social media patient’s consent form and other files, images and graphics you are free to adapt and use.

     

    Download our Posters

    Download our Resources