A-dec, designers, manufacturers and suppliers of dental equipment to surgeries across the UK, have re-branded their entire fleet of vehicles to promote the links between oral health and general health. The fleet, which covers more than 30k miles each year, will carry the messages that could be seen by more than 250k people per annum.
The link between oral health and overall body health is well documented and backed by robust scientific evidence. Despite this, research by the British Dental Health Foundation reveals only one in six people realise that people with gum disease may have an increased risk of stroke or diabetes and only one in three is aware of the heart disease link.
Add to this one in five people have admitted they would cancel their dental appointment to keep their social life afloat, and chief executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, Nigel Carter, believes the messages could help to prompt the public into heading to the dentist.
Nigel said: “Visiting the dentist regularly, as often as they recommend, is a key message of the Foundations. It isn’t just about maintaining mouth health any more, as what happens in your mouth is becoming increasingly linked to what happens elsewhere in the body.
“That is why the messages on A-dec’s vans is a brilliant idea. They could prompt someone into getting a check-up, which could save their life.”
Luke Broadhurst, marketing manager at A-dec, said: “We estimate two followers reading this message each mile, therefore potentially a quarter of a million people could see this message each year. This gave us a great opportunity for the vans to be used as ‘ad vans’ promoting the links between oral health and general health, to the general public. Ultimately the rear of the van is the area that will be followed and read most by the general public and only rarely by our customers, so we decided to make better use of this space.
“In the world of instant visual communications we wanted to give those travelling behind the vans a thought provoking image which hits home the message about ‘good oral health affects your general health’ with the goal being to encourage the viewer to actively make a conscious decision to seek out their dentists advice. To do this we needed to give them something to think about as they drive away rather than just using this space for more of a traditional approach for their company logo, phone number, and website you see on most vans up and down the roads of the UK.
“We are working with the British Dental Health Foundation to ensure this oral health message is pushed out to the widest audience possible so together we can address the challenging oral health issues we have here in the UK.”