Billboards are being used to help tackle the growing problem of children’s tooth decay. The billboards have been specially designed by students at Newcastle under Lyme College and Stafford College and are part of a wide array of tools being used by the hospital and local health partners to tackle the growing problem of tooth decay in the younger generation.
The UHNM’s (University Hospitals of North Midlands) #keepstokesmiling campaign aims to help educate young people in Stoke on Trent about the damaging effects of too much sugar on teeth. Five-year-old children in Stoke-on-Trent are in the bottom quarter of England’s Local Authority tooth decay league and Stoke has four times the number of hospital admissions for decayed teeth than the average in the rest of the UK.
Karen Juggins, Consultant Orthodontist at Royal Stoke University Hospital, who is leading the initiative, said: “Grossly decayed teeth in children and young adults is one of Stoke’s biggest dental health problems. The consumption of high sugar-content fizzy drinks is without doubt a large contributing factor and many of our patients seem unaware of the consequences. For example, a can of cola contains an average nine cubes of sugar and a can of energy drink contains on average 13 cubes of sugar. We’ve set out on a mission to improve the dismal statistics we are seeing year after year. We’ve also involved local schools in a ‘no sugary drinks in March’ challenge and we’ve asked our patients to do the same.
“We’re thrilled that our campaign is being given such a fantastic boost with the billboards. The artwork has been intelligently designed by some young and talented people who actually make up our target audience and have gone up in really busy parts of the city, which means that thousands of people see them. We know that social media is also a fantastic way to educate our patients and promote orthodontics and good dental health, and Instagram offers us an opportunity to share reliable information with patients about their orthodontic treatment and oral health in general, so we are making full use of these tools too. But billboards are such a great visual thing and you can’t really miss them, so we’re hoping that people will really take notice.”
UHNM’s orthodontic team has collaborated with colleagues in general dental practice and general medical practice, the community dental service and local dental public health and NHS England teams. Members of the dental trade are also supporting the campaign. Posters will be displayed in participating dental practices, schools and colleges throughout March and April as well as billboards in Stoke-on-Trent. The local council and Strategi (a local marketing company) jointly own the billboard sites. Based upon the fact that that was a local community project, a considerably reduced rate was negotiated with them to have the work displayed. The local NHS England team then contributed to the #keepstokesmiling campaign, which covered the cost of the billboards.
You can follow the Stoke Orthodontic Team on #keepstokesmiling