The Oral Health Foundation has been helping to influence the world’s oral health through education and support for nearly five decades and within this period we have worked to improve people's attitudes and behaviours as to how they care and look after their mouths.

We are immensely proud that the charity’s values and principles remain the same today as when we first formed. Our principles and experiences help to guide the work we do and people we help.

We work closely with oral health educators, health professionals, schools and workplaces, to help facilitate and encourage them in delivering oral health education, especially in disadvantaged communities and regions of known poor oral health.

The Oral Health Foundation facilitates thousands of events and projects every year and continues to offer a forum for like-minded people to campaign together and organise grassroots activities such as fun days, talks, sponsored events, roadshows, displays, open sessions and competitions – all which have the ultimate goal of engaging people in the importance of oral health.

Much of the work we do has also coincided with an improvement in the population oral health status, such as the number of teeth they have now compared a few generations ago. We have also been witnessed and played a major role in significant changes in government policies which have had a direct effect on our oral health as a population.

Here are just some of the things we have achieved over the last year:

• We facilitated and assisted in more than 3,000 community events promoting oral health.

• We worked with more than 15,000 dental and health organisations to increase awareness of important oral health issues.

• Our joint work with over 1,000 nurseries and schools helped promote the value of a healthy smile to thousands of children.

• More than half a million of our 'Tell Me About' patient information leaflets were supplied to dental practices and hospitals to give out to patients.

• We had 1,200 articles promoting oral health in the media and press.

• Our messages promoting good oral hygiene reached an estimated 330 million readers, listeners and viewers worldwide.

• Our website saw more than 2.5 million of you visit us for oral health information.

• We accredited more than 150 oral health products to help consumers make informed choices.

During the year we have visited people and teams up and down the country, all of which have been inspired by the work that we do. Whether it is a school running oral health sessions in the classroom, dental students creating engaging projects to improve community health, or fundraisers looking to raise awareness and money for the cause that we all believe in.

The passion and enthusiasm of individuals and groups has been enormously infectious and it gives us great hope for the future. We urge anybody with an interest in oral health and passion to make a positive impact to join us in our activities and help us drive this change and make a difference.

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Useful links:

• Oral Health Foundation Impact Report for 2016/17