Celebrating Sharing Smiles Day 2013

Congratulations to our Schulich Dentistry students who helped organize Sharing Smiles Day 2013, held Saturday, April 20. The event was a success with more than 120 volunteers, including students, faculty, dentists and hygienists from the community, as well as 80 participants with special needs (many from Community Living London).

As an annual event, Sharing Smiles Day aims to increase awareness of the need to remove barriers and improve access to oral health care for persons with special needs and emphasizes the importance of oral health.

The day consisted of morning games and oral hygiene related activities including making tooth brushing calendars, playing the healthy bean-bag toss and creating a giant toothbrush for scoring hockey goals.

Morning events were followed by a luncheon and a few speeches by Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care; Dr. Saad, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry; Dr. Mara, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry; Dr. McLister representing the Ontario Dental Association and London District Dental Society; and Michelle Palmer, Executive Director of Community Living London. The event was concluded with an oral hygiene instruction lead by local dentists, hygienists and clinical faculty, assisted by dental and hygiene students.
(View photo slideshow below)

Sharing Smiles Day is a national event organized under Oral Health, Total Health: a student run federal non-profit organization. Oral Health, Total Health's London Chapter is led by: Tara Kennedy, Kathleen Martin, Aaron Jolivet, Anuradha Mukhopadhyay and Nicole Johnson.