Your office can easily participate in February’s National Children’s Dental Health Month with free resources from the MDA and ADA. They’re easily accessible at the ADA website, and some are included right here in this issue of the MDA Journal.
Here’s the information you need to get started:
ADA Resources
2023 ADA NCDHM Program Planning Guide. This online guide will give you the resources you need to plan a great Children’s Dental Health Month event in your office and community. The guide includes easy-to-do activities, program planning timetable tips, and more.
Printable Coloring and Activity Sheets. Distribute coloring and activity sheets to children in your practice or give them to local teachers for a fun classroom activity. For your convenience, we’ve included a few of these in the January issue of the Journal.
Posters! The ADA’s 2023 posters feature the slogan “Brush, Floss, Smile” Posters are 12-inches-by-18-inches, in English on one side and Spanish on the reverse. Each pack contains 25 posters. You can display them in your office or give them to teachers when making educational presentations to classrooms. For poster orders larger than 200, email [email protected].
Postcards! New this year are NCDHM postcards, also with the Brush, Floss, Smile theme, plus Healthy Smile Tips. The 4-inch-by-6-inch postcards are available in English and Spanish. One pack contains 100 postcards (orders are limited to 40 packs, or 4,000 postcards).
Flyers! Also available are 8.5-inch-by-11-inch flyers in English and Spanish.
Publicity resources. Included on the ADA website are numerous ways your practice can publicize National Children’s Dental Health Month, including suggested outlets for news releases, tips for broadcast interviews, and sample newspaper articles.
All ADA resources can be found and ordered online at the ADA’s National Children’s Dental Health Month page.
MDA Resources
Social media. Take part in the MDA’s efforts to reach the public through social media by liking and following us on Facebook. Throughout the month messages will promote children’s oral health including MDA’s YouTube videos on “The Sugary Truth” and “A Big Superhero Story from a Little Mouth”. Please share the content on your practice page. If you take pictures of your classroom visit we would love to share them. Send them via email to the MDA’s Jason Heinrich.
Online Teaching Curriculum
Give Kids a Smile Planning Resources
Give Kids a Smile events take place in dental offices throughout the nation. The ADA offers a wealth of planning resources to help with your event. If you are hosting a treatment event in Michigan, you may wish to use the following consent or combined health history/consent form for patients attending your event. These forms have been reviewed by MDA and ADA legal counsel. If you need additional assistance, contact the MDA at 800-589-2632.