PROJECTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Open Wide and Raised in Yorkshire have joined forces to carry out a Final Year Project at the University of Leeds School of Dentistry, coordinated by Esme Grange (our chairperson) and Lisa Mercer (volunteer). Raised in Yorkshire is an initiative to give a voice to BAME young people to encourage engagement with dental research. The project involves training seven sixth form students from Batley Girls School in Yorkshire to be Oral Health Educators. These girls will be going into two primary schools to deliver an assembly and workshop in the Open Wide style. We have been measuring the primary school children’s oral hygiene in terms of knowledge, skill and habit. After the visits by the sixth form students, we hope that this technique of oral health education leads to an improvement and can be employed on a wider scale.

​

In February 2018, we submitted an entry for the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) Outstanding Innovation Award for our work on the collaboration. Our entry was Highly Commended, being described by judges as ‘a gem of a project’ for our outstanding work on reducing oral health and social inequalities. For more information on the entries, please see the BSPD Article about the award.