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Talking Teeth: Promoting children's oral health and widening participation

BDJ Student volume 32, pages 96–98 (2025)Cite this article

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‘Talking Teeth' is delivered by a team of staff and student volunteers. The programme is designed to encourage students to undertake their social responsibility as oral healthcare professionals while being mindful of their clinical academic commitments. The activities are therefore undertaken outside of their clinical commitments. The programme appoints a new student lead every year and empowers them to initiate and lead activities with close support of the staff lead. It allows students to take on leadership roles and appreciate the value of effective team working.

The aims of ‘Talking Teeth' include:

  1. 1.

    Promotion of oral health of children and young people

  2. 2.

    Increasing engagement of oral healthcare teams with the local community

  3. 3.

    Promotion of equity, diversity and inclusivity by widening participation in dentistry.

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References

  1. Public Health Wales. Tooth decay rates in 12-year-olds in Wales fall, but challenges remain. 2025. Available from: https://phw.nhs.wales/news/tooth-decay-rates-in-12-year-olds-in-wales-fall-but-challenges-remain/ (accessed July 2025).

  2. Public Health Wales. Dental Epidemiological Inspection of School Year One (5-year-old) children in Wales. 2023. Available from: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/2792535/Picture-of-Oral-Health-2022-23-Year-1-report-ENG.pdf (accessed July 2025).

  3. Public Health England. Tackling Poor Oral Health in children: Local government's public health role. 2016. Available from: https://www.local.gov.uk/publications/tackling-poor-oral-health-children-local-governments-public-health-role (accessed July 2025).

  4. Institute of Fiscal Studies. How English domiciled graduate earnings vary with gender, institution attended, subject and socio-economic background. 2016. Available from: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-english-domiciled-graduate-earnings-vary-gender-institution-attended-subject-and (accessed July 2025).

  5. Boliver V. Exploring ethnic inequalities in admission to Russell Group Universities. Sociology 2015; 50: 247-266.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiff Dental School, Cardiff, United Kingdom

    Dania Al-Zubaidy, Ffion Howells & Shannu Bhatia

Authors
  1. Dania Al-Zubaidy
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  2. Ffion Howells
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  3. Shannu Bhatia
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dania Al-Zubaidy.

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Al-Zubaidy, D., Howells, F. & Bhatia, S. Talking Teeth: Promoting children's oral health and widening participation. BDJ Student 32, 96–98 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41406-025-1538-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41406-025-1538-4

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