As the main sponsor of Mouth Cancer Action Month, Denplan is passionate about raising awareness about mouth cancer. The increasing popularity of its #BlueLipSelfie campaign allows dental professionals to talk to their patients about the risks, symptoms and prevention of this devastating disease.
#BlueLipSelfie is easy, quick and fun to do and allows everyone to visibly show their support and become more ‘mouthaware’. Denplan has sent all member practices a poster, PR toolkit and a sheet of blue lip stickers so that they can support the campaign. To take part in #BlueLipSelfie all practices have to do is take a photo of themselves, their patients or their teams with blue lips and share it on Twitter or Instagram using the campaign’s hashtag: #BlueLipSelfie. Practices and patients can also directly upload a selfie to Denplan’s specially created microsite and gallery at www.bluelipselfie.co.uk or customise their photo with fun blue cartoon lips using the app.
Mouth Cancer Action Month aims to get more mouth cancers diagnosed at an early stage by educating people on the risk factors, signs and symptoms; while also encouraging the public to discuss them with their dental professional.
Mouth cancer is one of the few cancers which continues to see incidence increase year on year, with cases rising by over a third in the last decade alone. Being on the frontline in the fight against mouth cancer, support and participation from dental professionals remains instrumental in helping combat a disease which kills more people every year than testicular and cervical cancer combined.
Henry Clover, chief dental officer at Denplan, said: “Early detection of mouth cancer is pivotal in fighting against this disease and makes an enormous difference to survival rates. This means that all dental professionals are on the front line of raising awareness and helping patients understand the risks and symptoms.
“By providing mouth cancer checks for their patients at routine appointments, dental professionals can open up discussions with their patients and encourage them to feel comfortable when talking about the lifestyle choices that may be putting them at risk of mouth cancer.”
He added: “Practices can wear blue lips as a visible sign of their support for the mouth cancer campaign, which can help raise awareness and, if wearing them in practice, can be a positive conversation starter. They can also share their photos on their social media sites. We saw hundreds of practices taking part last year, and we hope we will see even more this year.”
Denplan has included a range of information including case studies of people who have survived mouth cancer – due to their dentist spotting early signs of the disease– as well as information about what a mouth cancer check involves.
Nigel Carter, chief executive of the Oral Health Foundation, commented: “We are extremely grateful that Denplan is once again a key supporter of Mouth Cancer Action Month. With a joint approach from the dental profession we can all help raise public awareness of the signs and symptoms of mouth cancer and help ensure that every patient is checked for signs of the disease. This should increase the likelihood of the disease being detected early, with treatment more likely to result in a positive outcome for the patient.”
For more information on Mouth Cancer Action Month and how you can get involved please visit www.mouthcancer.org