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My friend and client James Hamill has pioneered the launch of Humble Brush in the UK and his company Quintess Denta are the suppliers. They also have plans to support Bridge2Aid in Tanzania next year.
I see all of this as a wonderful example of CSR in dentistry and an opportunity for any practice to contribute by becoming a stockist of Humble Brush and allowing their patients to participate.
Here is a short guest blog from Dr. Darren Weiss, President of Humble Smile Foundation, together with a link to a PDF explaining more about their recent project in India:
Many kids throughout the world have no means to care for their oral health. The dental clinic is too far away. They don’t have fluoride and they don’t have a toothbrush. What they do have is an increasingly sugary diet. The result is often pain, tooth loss, missing school, disability, and impaired psychological and physical development.
The Humble Smile Foundation’s mission is to prevent suffering caused by oral disease by promoting effective oral health initiatives where needs are great. In order for the impact to be sustainable, the program entails much more than just handing out toothbrushes. Educating about oral health has also been shown to be of little value. Dental treatment too doesn’t impact dental disease – if anything it contributes to further disease.
What’s needed are preventive oral health interventions, that include changes to the daily routine such as monitored tooth brushing and modification of the amount of sugar in the diet. Healthy behaviors and lifestyles developed at a young age are more sustainable throughout life. Similarly, Humble Smile Foundation is committed to developing and strengthening the capacities of local non-dental personnel through education and training.
Other interventions that aim to promote and facilitate long-term sustainable improvements include tackling upstream factors, and the environment, that cause poor oral health and create inequities.