World Oral Health Day Campaigns by Dental Students' Society of Nepal- From 100m to 3800m, From Screen to Streets, From Old to Child.

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

Dental Students Society, Nepal celebrated World Oral Health Day as a nationwide campaign that involved a diverse group of activities which all resonated to make a massive impact throughout the country. The campaign activities were targeted not only to individuals and communities that represented diverse socio-economical and biological backgrounds but also to those serving as parents and students of medical and allied health sciences.

Various activities were included in the campaign such as

1. Happy Mouth Contest
2. Brush and Boogie Contest
3. Oral Health for All- A Community Outreach Series
4. Muskaan Digital Campaign
5. Walk the Talk- Oral Health Meet with the Leaders
6. Run for Oral Health
7. Talk session on connection between oral health and Mental Wellbeing
8. Meditation Session
9. Mass Screening Camp at Kathmandu Durbar Square
10. World Oral Health Day Newsletter

1. Happy Mouth Contest

Happy Mouth Contest happened at Facebook platform over DSSN’s official page.

After social media announcement of the contest is made, participants; mostly dental students across Nepal participated in the contest by filling up the form and uploading their happy mouth photo.

Organizing team put the uploaded form in the Happy mouth frame from the world oral health day website and posted it in the social media of DSSN’s Facebook official page.

65 individuals participated in the campaign who were representing various dental schools across Nepal.

Happy Mouth Campaign reached over a large number of audiences as students from different colleges across Nepal participated in the campaign.

Overall Reach for Happy Mouth Contest [Sum of all the reach from Individual Photo]

150,000

2. Brush and Boogie Contest

Brush and Boogie contest happened at Instagram over DSSN’s official account.

After the social media announcement was done, calling participants to make reels in the Toothie’s new song and collaborate DSSN in the reels to participate in the contest.

Altogether 3 participants in the Brush and Boogie contest representing 3 different colleges i.e. Maharajgunj Medical Campus, Peoples Dental College and College of Medical Sciences.

Links to the reels are attached below:

1. Peoples Dental College- Click Here
2. College of Medical Sciences- Click Here
3. Maharajgunj Medical Campus- Click Here

Brush and Boogie contest participating reels got huge number of views through Instagram users

Overall, Views for Brush and Boogie Contest

18,000 Views

3. Oral Health for All- A Community Outreach Series

“Oral Health for All- A Community Outreach Series” is a campaign that highlights the importance of oral health for everybody irrespective of their age, socio-economic status and physical limitations.

The campaign was executed in different places that represents different communities from diverse background. The target communities that represent the following groups were selected.

a. Especially Abled Individual

b. Women

c. Elderly Population

d. Low Socio- Economic Status Population

e. Orphans

f. Street Children

g. Children of Imprisoned Parents

OBJECTIVES

• To increase the awareness level regarding oral health among various representative communities
• To conduct oral disease screening among various vulnerable population
• To provide Topical Fluoride Application treatment to caries susceptible children
• To distribute oral hygiene care products to the needy population

More than 1000 individuals from different background were benefited from the campaigns.

Altogether 13 sites were visited by campaign volunteers and provided with various promotive and preventive services.

CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES

a.  ORAL DISEASE SCREENING

Early diagnosis is considered as one of the secondary level of preventions. Diagnosis oral disease and condition at early stage is really essential to decrease the impact that the disease makes. Considering this we included free oral disease screening in our campaigns.

b. TOPICAL FLUORIDE APPLICATION

Topical Fluoride Application is one of the proven efficient preventive interventions that can be done on camp setup.

We provided topical fluoride application to the children susceptible to caries. We used Acidulated Phosphate Fluoride (APF) gel as a fluoride agent.

Topical Fluoride Application was done on around 150 children with high caries susceptibility.

c. Oral hygiene kits distribution

Toothpaste and Toothbrush were distributed to the needy population. Participants were involved in oral health education session before distributing the oral hygiene kits. Th distributed kit served as motivation for them to implement the learned techniques in their daily life.

d. KIDS ACTIVITY SHEET

As a part of interactive learning sessions, children were engaged in Kids Activity Sheet developed by World Dental Federation (FDI).

High level of enthusiasm was seen among the child participants. Children were provided with the printed sheet, color pen and pencils for the activity.

Individual outreach details

Place of outreach: Sinamangal Slum Area (Guweshwori Secondary School)
 Date: 2025-03-15
 Target groups: Low socio-economic status
 Number of beneficiaries: 200

 

Place of outreach: Nepal Eternity Orphan Home, Tilottama Municipality-15, Rupandehi
 Date: 2025-03-15
 Target groups: Orphanage children
 Number of beneficiaries: 40

 

Place of outreach: BIA Institute, Jorpati
 Date: 2025-03-16
 Target groups: Specially Abled Individuals
 Number of beneficiaries: 70

 

Place of outreach: Chobar Mahila Samuha, Chobar
 Date: 2025-03-16
 Target groups: Women
 Number of beneficiaries: 40

 

Place of outreach: Naya Nepal Samaj Kendra, Bhaktapur
 Date: 2025-03-18
 Target groups: Orphanage children
 Number of beneficiaries: 52

 

Place of outreach: Dwarikadas Secondary School, Chitwan
 Date: 2025-03-18
 Target groups: School Children
 Number of beneficiaries: 200

 

Place of outreach: Help Nepal Network (Orphanage), Dhulikhel
 Date: 2025-03-22
 Target groups: Orphanage children
 Number of beneficiaries: 40

 

Place of outreach: Sahara Orphanage
 Date: 2025-03-22
 Target groups: Orphanage children
 Number of beneficiaries: 30

 

Place of outreach: Navajeevan Philanthropy Society
 Date: 2025-03-23
 Target groups: Elderly Residents
 Number of beneficiaries: 40

 

Place of outreach: Sindupalchowk
 Date: 2025-03-27
 Target groups: Children, elder residents
 Number of beneficiaries: 100

 

Place of outreach: Police Public Campaign for Children Nepal
 Date: 2025-04-04
 Target groups: Street Children
 Number of beneficiaries: 40

 

Place of outreach: Self Help Nepal
 Date: 2025-04-04
 Target groups: Orphanage children
 Number of beneficiaries: 150

 

Place of outreach: Prisoners Assistance Mission
 Date: 2025-04-05
 Target groups: Children of Imprisoned parents
 Number of beneficiaries: 28

4. MUSKAAN DIGITAL CAMPAIGN

Muskaan Digital Campaign which can be considered as one of the innovative concepts within the campaign. As World Health Organization (WHO) suggested, DSSN realized the importance of parent’s education in oral health of children especially the children of age group 3-9 years. Thus, a digital campaign was launched targeting the parents and teachers of children of age group 3-9 years where parents were reached by digital volunteers by school administration and Parents- Teacher Group to conduct virtual oral health workshop through video conferencing tools. More than 450+ parents were benefited from this campaign.

Step 1: Digital Volunteers were hired, consisting of dental students, young dental professionals, and medical and public health students.

Step 2: Standard awareness material was created by our content creation team under the guidance of experts.

Step 3: A training session was conducted by experts for the digital volunteers, while various school administrations were approached to reach parents and teachers of school-going children through parent-teacher online groups.

Step 4: Virtual oral health workshops were conducted by digital volunteers for the target audiences.

5.WALK THE TALK- ORAL HEALTH MEET WITH THE LEADERS

“Walk The Talk- Oral Health Meet with the Leaders” was organized by Dental Students’ Society of Nepal in collaboration with World Health Organization- Nepal.

The event was conducted in one of the World Heritage Site at Boudhanath Stupa in April 12, 2025. Event was a oral health talk and meeting session with the leaders and representative of various medical students and youth organization.

objectives

• To discuss with delegates of various organization aware about the oral health status around the globe and Nepal
• To discuss about the global and national strategies to tackle with oral health challenges among delegates of various youth organization.
• To conclude the role of students’ and youth organization in oral health promotion and advocacy.
• To commit youth and student organization to take action for oral health.

6. RUN FOR ORAL HEALTH

Run for Oral Health” is a first ever event of this kind in Nepal which was organized by DSSN at March 20. This event was aimed to unite dental student, dental professionals and other concerned personalities to increase public awareness about the significance of the day and importance of oral health.

The participants began to gather for the session from 6:30 am and the World Oral Health Day themed T-shirts were distributed to the participants.

The participants began the run from the Kathmandu Durbar Square at 7:00 am and headed their route to Naxal Narayanchaur through Jamal and Durbar Marg. The total distance was 2.8km. Along the way participants give shout out to this years theme i.e. “Happy Mouth is.....a Happy Mind”. Finally after 20 mins they reached to the destination and had snacks, water and took rest

7. Talk session on connection between oral health and Mental Wellbeing

To discuss this year's theme “ A Happy Mouth is ....a Happy Mind” a talk session was organized following the run session. The speakers were

a. Mr. Bijay Chapagain (M.Sc. in Psychology) Talked on how healthy smile can promote healthy mental state.

b. Sunoj Bhattarai (Professor of Sports Science, former National cricket team coach)

Talk about the importance of dentistry in sports.

Other Speakers:

c. Dr. Neil Pande (President, NSID)

d. Dr. Pranay Shakya (President, NDA)

e. Dr. Sandip Chaudhary (President, DSSN)

8. MEDITATION SESSION

The meditation session was one of the key highlights of the event, thoughtfully included to emphasize the vital connection between oral health and mental well-being. Aimed particularly at students and dental professionals, the session underlined the importance of mental health and stress management in the demanding healthcare field.

9. MASS SCREENING AT KATHMANDU DURBAR SQUARE

Introduction

On the occasion of World Oral Health Day 2025 on March 20, Dental Students Society, Nepal conducted free mass dental screening camp at Basantapur Durbar Square providing oral disease screening service to more than 500 people.

Kathmandu Durbar Square is one of the World Heritage Sites present in Nepal which has huge number of tourist visitors. In between the temples with extraordinary architectures, volunteers of Dental Students Society Nepal conducted the screening camp. 

Objectives

a. To provide oral disease screening to public.

b. To aware people about their oral health status 

c. To motivate individuals with treatment needs to utilize the dental health services for their optimum oral health.

Event overview

Date: March 20, 2025

Time: 11 PM to 3 PM

Location: Kathmandu Durbar Square in front of Taleju Bhawani Temple

No. of Beneficiaries: 500+

No. of Volunteers: 7

10. WORLD ORAL HEALTH DAY NEWSLETTER

to reach a wider audience and disseminate valuable information, a newsletter titled "DSSN NEWSLETTER WOHD 2025 SPECIAL EDITIONS" was released on March 20, 2025, via DSSN's social media accounts. The newsletter's three main sections were an introduction to WOHD, DSSN activities related to WOHD, and an article about the link between mental and oral health in relation to the WOHD 2024–2026 theme, "A Happy Mouth is..A Happy Mind."

The WOHD introduction includes a brief explanation of what WOHD is, why it is celebrated, and some fascinating facts about it. Digital Campaigns and Community Outreach Series are both explicitly listed under DSSN activities. Finally, the article "The Power of Smiling: How a healthy mouth boosts your mental health?" explains how oral health affects mental health and provides advice on how to maintain a happy and healthy mouth.