Smile Together once again joined the Oral Health Foundation and other oral care organisations nationally to celebrate National Smile Month (17th May – 17th June) and highlight the importance of taking good care of your oral health.
We entered the Nominate a Smile competition and as well as sharing top tips, advice and information on our social media channels, we also took the opportunity this year to showcase several of our colleagues who go the extra mile to make others smile. Here are just a few of those we shone a light on:
- Brighter Smiles oral health promotion dental nurses Jo (a previous Nominate A Smile winner) and Jenna visit school communities in areas of high tooth decay across Cornwall, setting up Toothbrushing Clubs, applying fluoride varnish, and teaching children and their families about the importance of good oral health. Their reassuring attitude in the classroom helps even the most nervous children relax and smile, taking away their fear of the dentist: https://smiletogether.co.uk/improving-oral-health-with-smile-together/
- Dentist Paula and dental nurse Sarah work in community dentistry and help their patients smile by gaining their trust and helping them to overcome their fears – an all-round positive impact which extends to patients’ families too. They also represent and support their colleagues as members of our Shareholder Impact Board, representing our employee-owners and helping to create a healthy happy community at work. Read more about what they do: https://smiletogether.co.uk/paula-souto-and-sarah-andrews/
- A life-long affinity with Cornwall meant Specialist in Special Care Mick Allen made us all smile when he chose to join Smile Together earlier this year as Clinical Director for Quality Assurance and Patient Safety alongside his Clinical Directorship for Community Dental Services in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. Cornwall and South Wales share similar oral health challenges and Mick is now making an even broader positive impact, as you can read here: https://smiletogether.co.uk/mick-allen/
- Joy Callender is our Quality Assurance & Compliance Lead but she also leads a number of special projects that see Smile Together making a genuine difference to the oral health of local communities by reaching out to ‘hard to reach’ or vulnerable people. From our Brighter Smiles oral health programme in school communities to the award-winning Smiles at Sea project taking dentistry to fishermen at the harboursides, it’s all about smiles in local communities! You can read more about Joy here: https://smiletogether.co.uk/joy-callender/
From clinical teams and professional support colleagues through to senior managers and Smile Together Board members, we’re so grateful to everyone in Smile Together who go above and beyond to improve the lives of those who need us most in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Our Brighter Smiles oral health team really enjoyed the Tooth Fairy Exchange, a virtual meet-up organised by the Nottingham oral health promotion team “The Tooth Fairies” – a great opportunity to meet other health programme providers across the country, share ideas and inspire one another.
Our oral health donations project continued throughout National Smile Month, with our teams in various locations across the county generously volunteering their time to make up oral health packs containing toothbrushes for the whole family, toothpaste, and oral health care literature for donating to local charities and community groups who work with vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities. It’s been so inspiring to connect with these organisations and we look forward to donating more packs and helping even more people!
