National Smile Month 2007

News of Tony Blair standing down as Prime Minister unfortunately overshadowed the British Dental Health Foundation launch of National Smile Month.

Running from 13 May to 12 June National Smile Month's aim is to raise awareness of the importance of improving oral health by brushing twice a day for two minutes.

Sponsored by Procter & Gamble, the launch at the House of Commons included speeches by leading experts of dentistry, including Dr Nigel Carter, British Dental Health Foundation CEO. Rosie Winterton, MP, Minister for Health, was amongst the audience as he made his address.

"Brushing your teeth for 2 minutes twice-a-day is the most important thing when it comes to oral health - but clinical research has found that most people only brush for 45 seconds". he stated.

"Our research has found that 1 in 5 people don't brush twice a day, and one in 200 don't even use a brush!"

"If everybody adopted the two minutes twice a day rule there's no doubt that we'd see a significant oral health improvement in this country."

Juan Alanis, P&G Professional Oral Health Western European Director commented "We commend and wholeheartedly support the efforts of the British Dental Health Foundation to address the issue of compliance with respect to two-minute brushing.".