The Bangladeshi Live.Learn.Laugh. project aims to build awareness of the importance of oral hygiene, focusing on the prevention of common dental disease, particularly amongst rural communities. Part of the project runs dental camps helping both adults and children in remote rural areas. In the first phase of the project, over 2,500 people benefited from free dental check ups and restorative treatment such as scaling, filing, ART and simple extractions.

Another aspect of the project is a Continuous Education Programme (CEP) which runs in six large cities. This programme educates dentists to promote a better oral health service. Around 850 dentists, 60 medical professionals and 50 local officials have taken part so far.

With the first project phase complete, the Bangladesh Dental Society (BDS) plans to roll out further activities over the next two years. The results from the CEP and the dental camps will be reviewed and data collected will be analysed scientifically before being published in a national dental journal.

In addition to these activities, the BDS organised a highly successful ‘Oral Health Day’ in late 2007, aiming to reach 12,000 people. The one-day programme was held in 64 districts with 252 dental clinics and exceeded its target, reaching 15,000 people. The BDS called the Live.Learn.Laugh. partnership “the global initiative of paramount importance in developing countries to improve overall oral health status.”

The Colegio de Cirujano Dentistas De Chile is about to start the newest project in the Live.Learn.Laugh. network, which will be the second Partnership project in Chile.

Previous oral health surveys conducted in Chile raised concern that oral health is not a top priority for public health policymakers in the country. This research-based Partnership project will involve young volunteers working to improve the state of oral health amongst young adults. The project will be carried out using a special odontology programme focusing on preventive action, damage control and other specific objectives such as educational intervention, oral hygiene and its techniques. It will also involve carrying out basic dental treatment to limit damage and be consistent in prophylaxis.

The project will help to determine the effectiveness of educational intervention in oral hygiene habits, together with carrying out promotional campaigns and providing basic dental treatment. The analysis will contribute to the assessment of the oral health status of the population.

The first Live.Learn.Laugh. project, carried out by the Sociedad Odontológica de Chile, is already in its second phase. The Maranai oral health education and promotion project for ethnic minorities runs in three regions of the country, focusing on care of the most vulnerable members of the population and aiming to develop sustainable oral health promotion activities.

This project is implementing a prenatal dental education programme for the improvement of oral health in both mothers and infants.

Prenatal education has become common practice for parents-to-be in Poland. The Polish Dental Society has integrated (through Live.Learn.Laugh.) an oral health programme into prenatal education.

This project began by inviting 178 registered schools to join a database for the prenatal dental programme; 37 of which accepted and are now registered to participate. As part of the programme the following information will be available for new families:

• Typical dental problems faced by mothers-to-be and preventative methods
• The effects of non-treated caries and periodontal disease in pregnancy and beyond
• Oral hygiene and dietary instructions for pregnant women and infants
• The role of fluoride in dental caries prevention
• Advice for regular dental visits for children

Furthermore, 5000 brochures will be delivered with the next edition of Czasopismo Stomatologiczne, a monthly Polish Dental Society magazine for dental practitioners. A paper on the Live.Learn.Laugh. project in Poland will be published in the magazine, motivating dentists to support the idea of prenatal dental education.

Coinciding with the Asia Pacific Dental Congress, representatives of the FDI, all participating National DentalAssociations from the region and Unilever Oral Care, met in Bangkok from the 8th to 10th May for the third of our annual regional Live.Learn.Laugh. workshops. The workshop was an opportunity to share best practice from around the Asia region, discuss country projects and measurement and evaluation techniques, and to form closer working relationships that will enable projects to deliver on their own aims and help achieve the Partnership’s goals. Dr. Burton Conrod, President of the FDI, attended the first day of the workshop and highly praised the outstanding work being done by Live.Learn.Laugh. programmes in the Asia region.