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Professional Partnerships

Oral Health Foundation

5th April 2016

Exciting times this week! Leading oral health charity the British Dental Health Foundation has changed its name to the Oral Health Foundation. As a Trustee of the Charity, we’ve experienced growing demands in recent years. We want to deliver even greater support, information and education on oral health, worldwide.

So the Charity’s name change reflects the significantly broader reach and influence we have established globally. It will allow us to strengthen, our objective to provide better oral health for all. It will also help our charity reach a far larger audience. This means we can deliver important projects to even more individuals and communities around the world.

The name change became effective yesterday (Monday April 4th). But it was announced at a recent event at the Royal Society for Public Health in London. Our President, Janet Goodwin, explained to an invited audience why the charity decided to make the change.

Janet said: “Since the charity was formed we have undergone remarkable progression and development as an organisation. This has been particularly evident since the turn of the 21st century.

“In this time we have taken on some challenging and exciting new projects. We’ve developed many key partnerships and expanded our work internationally.

“But we need a different identity. One which reflects the important work, reach and diversity we have achieved over the last 45 years. Also, one which will enable us to continue to move forward, building many more effective partnerships. We want to develop stronger ties between dental and health professionals and the public around the world.

Oral Health Foundation

“Our new name reflects this perfectly and, alongside a reinvigorated focus.”

Dr Nigel Carter OBE, our Chief Executive, also spoke. “For more than four decades our biggest strength has been providing education and information on oral health to millions of people throughout the United Kingdom, so it only makes sense for us to expand and try deliver this on a global scale. The translation of our website into 9 major world languages now makes our oral health education material available in the native tongue of over 40% of the world’s population and our accredited products can be seen in some 50 countries.

“Through campaigns such as National Smile Month and Mouth Cancer Action Month we have continually been successful in promoting and championing the values of good oral health and wellbeing, while our accreditation programme remains an instrumental resource in increasing consumer confidence in the dental products people buy.

“Furthermore, under our new brand, our focus and commitment will remain as strong as ever. Also, our core mission and goals will remain much the same.

“We will continue our important work as a leading international charity. We aim to improve oral health for all, and tackle the harm caused by oral diseases. Many of these are entirely preventable.

“In conclusion, the OHF will always remain passionate and committed to providing expert, independent and impartial advice. We will educate on all aspects of oral health.  We will deliver it to those who need it most.”

Chief Dental Officer

Chief Dental Officer, Dr Sara Hurley, was delighted to hear of the name change. It aligns the charity closely with her mission to ensure that oral health is recognised and delivered as an integral element of all health and social care pathways. Good oral health is obtainable and sustainable, it underpins good health outcomes, a sense of wellbeing and a quality of life.

The image shows Dr Ben Atkins – Trustee Oral Health Foundation with Sarah Bradbury Head of Marketing and Communication at Dentists Provident (left) and Kate Quinlan News Editor for the British Dental Journal