World Oral Health Day (WOHD) is celebrated every year on the 20th March. It is an international day to celebrate the benefits of a healthy mouth and to promote worldwide awareness of the issues around oral health and the importance of looking after oral hygiene to everyone old and young. It is a day for people to have fun – a day that should be full of activities that make us laugh, sing and smile!
Why is WOHD important?
Because 90{cbc2d05f4d7ba1a5ebf92c9270bdbee22deebb822af761a1ff2f743ee2338260} of the world’s population will suffer from oral diseases in their lifetime and many of them can be avoided with increased governmental, health association and society support and funding for prevention, detection and treatment programmes. In addition, World Oral Health Day offers the dental and oral health community a platform to take action and help reduce the global disease burden.
What is the theme for WOHD 2015?
This year our efforts will be on wishing everybody a lifelong and healthy smile at all ages. The theme is “World Oral Health Day 2015, Smile for life!” and has a double meaning: ‘lifelong smile’ and ‘celebrating life’. In addition, it implies ‘positivity’ and ‘having fun’ as people only smile if they are happy and have a healthy life.
This tagline is complimented with a ‘call to action’ which is ‘Take the time…’ that can be adapted to the needs of individual campaigns. For example, if a general campaign promoting oral health is carried out, the tagline could be ‘Take the time to care for your mouth’. For those interested in seeking support from the local or national government, the tagline could be ‘Take the time to create / invest in an adequate oral health care programme to reduce the economic / social burden of oral disease’.
Who is the audience for WOHD 2015?
Everybody can take part in this initiative: health associations, specialist groups, member organizations and partners, governmental groups, students, teachers, the general public, and a large etcetera. This year we want to be sure everyone is taking time to promote oral health in their communities and reach as large an audience as possible.