DENTSPLY SIRONA : World Oral Health Day 2024 Partnership with FDI | Dentsply Sirona

Dentsply Sirona once again joins its long-time partner FDI World Dental Federation to promote World Oral Health Day (WOHD) and contribute to raising global awareness for the importance of good oral health. The company's engagement on this issue is part of its sustainability strategy "BEYOND: Taking action for a brighter world" and its ambition to achieve 25 million healthy smiles by 2025.

Charlotte, N.C., 2024. For World Oral Health Day 2024 on March 20, Dentsply Sirona, the world's largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies, is highlighting the urgent need for collective action across the dental industry and beyond to work towards universal access to oral health. Through initiatives with the Platform for Better Oral Health in Europe and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine, Dentsply Sirona advocates for medical-dental integration and addresses oral health inequalities and challenges. In the spirit of this appeal, Dentsply Sirona is continuing its partnership with FDI World Dental Federation (FDI) to raise awareness and inspire cross-industry collaborative efforts on this topic.

To this end, the company has put into place a number of actions on WOHD and throughout the coming year: Dentsply Sirona has made available a Patient Education Toolkit for use in dental practices and will run promotional activities on its social media channels as well as an awareness campaign internally for its employees. The company is also the global sponsor of FDI's 2024 WOHD Award for "Most engaging community campaign" to promote oral health.

"This year's Worl Oral Health Day motto is 'A happy mouth is a happy body'. While achieving and maintaining good oral health are often overlooked, they are critical to the overall health and well-being of people," says Andrea Frohning, Dentsply Sirona's SVP, Chief Human Resources Officer. "This is why we need to constantly take action to ensure that everyone everywhere has access to good oral health care. This is a momentous task and one that can only be achieved if we collaborate across industries and regions to make this goal come true."

To shine a light on the role of communities in promoting oral health, FDI has created the WOHD Award for "Most engaging community campaign". As the global sponsor of the award, Dentsply Sirona encourages members of the public to set up, run and nominate exceptional campaigns that educate local communities on the importance of oral and overall health. The award will consider the variety and reach of the campaign activities as well as the type and quality of collaboration with external partners, amongst other things. Further information about the award and how to participate can be found on the WOHD website.

Dental professionals who, in the spirit of WOHD, are looking to educate their patients on the direct correlation between oral health and whole-body health are invited to make use of the Patient Education Toolkit created by Dentsply Sirona. This patient communication resource contains a selection of easy-to-use media formats for use in dental practices or on digital channels to motivate patients to get regular dental check-ups.

2024 marks the third year that Dentsply Sirona has partnered with FDI on WOHD, and the topic of access to oral health remains important to Dentsply Sirona year-round as it forms a central aspect of the company's sustainability strategy "BEYOND: Taking action for a brighter world." Dentsply Sirona is well on its way to reach its goal of enabling 25 million smiles by 2025. The company has achieved this by working with key partners to help ensure that more communities have access to quality oral healthcare, through its single visit dentistry solutions, by educating people around the world that oral health is a key factor for living a longer and healthier life, and more.

"At Dentsply Sirona, we are dedicated to driving positive change in the dental industry to achieve better, accessible and more sustainable oral health outcomes through innovation, collaboration and impactful partnerships," says Andrea Frohning. "We invite dental institutions and individuals that want to make a change to join us and work united for better dentistry."

"It is essential to bring together partners from across public and private sectors and collaborate to successfully tackle oral health issues and improve access to oral health globally," says FDI President Dr. Greg Chadwick. "We are glad to partner with dental industry leader Dentsply Sirona on our mission to advance oral health as a critical component of overall health and well-being."

Those interested in promoting World Oral Health Day can follow the #WOHD24 campaign as well as Dentsply Sirona and FDI social media accounts for more information.

For more information on Dentsply Sirona's sustainability strategy BEYOND, visit www.dentsplysirona.com/sustainability.

Further information about the WOHD partnership with FDI is available on the website.