This week University of Birmingham Dental School took part in SM!LE Project 2012 part of a European Dental Students Association (EDSA) prevention program. The Project is sponsored by P&G and aims to promote oral hygiene to non-dental students throughout various European Dental schools, previously taken place in Leeds and Istanbul University.
A stall was set up in The University of Birmingham Centre which was organised in 3 staging areas. First non-dental students were asked to fill out a questionnaire related to their oral hygiene habits, diet, dental visits and smoking status. After completing this, they were given a demonstration by dental students on how to brush their teeth/flossing, what concentration of fluoride they should have, the maximum sugar intake a day and advice on the effects of smoking on oral health. Finally students were asked to fill out a quiz, with 4 questions related to oral hygiene advice, to win an Oral B Triumph toothbrush. We had 2 lucky winners each day!. Every student who took part was given 2 free toothpaste samples and oral hygiene advice leaflets. Vaiva, the EDSA Prevention officer from Lithuania and Jacob EDSA Representative from Leeds University also visited with us and advised us on the project to ensure it ran smoothly.
The project was a complete success with more than 50 dental students volunteering from 1st to 5th BDS. We reached over 1,000 University students! The volunteers were extremely enthusiastic and encouraging, promoting oral hygiene to its maximum!
We had such a fantastic start on Monday and Tuesday that by the end of the week most participants had heard about the project from their friends, and had specifically come to stall for the hygiene instructions given by our dental students (and the free toothpaste!).
Thank you to EDSA, P&G and University of Birmingham for helping run this Project, good luck to the many more dental schools that will take part in SM!LE!
Negar Mirzai, EDSA Rep for Birmingham Dental School
Blogger note – Well done to Negar Mirzai and her team – this report and all the content including the project was organised by our dental students. The work will form the basis of a larger project which will be presented at the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) to be held in Birmingham.
BrumDentists 