Dental Assistants Recognition Week™
During the first full week of March each year, we pay tribute to dental assistants. Dental Assistants Recognition Week™ was created in 1977 by the American Dental Assistants Association (ADAA) to recognize the vital role that dental assistants play in dental offices. Learn more at www.adaausa.org.
Dental assistants are committed to advancing their dental careers through education, continuing education, and earned certifications. Depending on the dental office, these duties may be among those performed by dental assistants: assisting the dentist, ordering supplies, answering the phone, managing the office, working in the dental lab, and acting as liaison to dental supply companies.
Dental offices wouldn’t run as smoothly as they do without dental assistants, and patients’ experiences when visiting their dental offices wouldn’t be as positive. So dental assistants—we recognize the value of what you do, and you have our appreciation!
National Dentist’s Day
Each year National Dentist’s Day is celebrated on March 6. It’s a special day to show appreciation to dentists for their role in keeping our smiles healthy, thereby contributing to our overall health. It’s also a reminder to people that may have avoided seeing their dentist regularly that dentists are our healthcare allies.
Dentists are highly trained professionals licensed to practice dentistry with either a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) or Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD) degree. Dentists diagnose, treat and advise patients on dental issues. Because patients often see their dentist more regularly than their physician, in the course of their examination and treatment of a patient, a dentist is sometimes able to detect symptoms of a chronic health condition earlier in its advancement than it might have otherwise been caught.
Because of oral health’s integral role in overall health and wellness, we need both our physician and our dentist on our personal healthcare team. Dentists: Thank you for being champions of our health! Learn more at www.nationaldentistsday.com.
World Oral Health Day
On March 20 each year the FDI World Dental Federation, and its global partners in promoting World Oral Health Day, ask “the world to unite to help reduce the burden of oral diseases, which affect individuals, health systems and economies everywhere.”
This is the first year of a three-year campaign that focuses on the links between oral health and overall health: “A Happy Mouth is . . . A Happy Body.” They would like everyone to take care of their mouth; and, by doing so, take care of their overall wellbeing. When they say everyone, they really mean it! In 2023, 35 thousand proud mouth images were shared, 223 countries were represented, and its media reach was 2.4 + billion. In addition to images of its mascot, Toothie the Beaver, you can find lots of free resource material intended to engage people worldwide on their website: www.worldoralhealthday.org.
