Wrigley have been a partner of the Oral Health Foundation since 2007. A few years later, they joined us as a sponsor of National Smile Month, a campaign which they have been involved with ever since.

Our partnership with Wrigley works because we both have a shared commitment to taking education right to the heart of local communities. We also believe in the value and importance of good oral health and the role in which diet plays in our wellbeing.

Throughout recent years, Wrigley have helped the Oral Health Foundation by funding dedicated projects which have had a clear impact on people’s oral health.

Wrigley funded a Tooth Fairy project worth £100,000 that supplied 12 oral health initiatives in the United Kingdom with the money to deliver oral health projects in their areas. The campaign directly helped an estimated 18,000 people, with children, the elderly and low-income families all benefiting.

Over the last year, Wrigley and the Oral Health Foundation also worked to deliver a total of 690 educational sessions in children centres and family support services across the UK.  The project was delivered by Action for Children and our educational resources were given to around 10,000 children and 5,000 parents.

Both the Oral Health Foundation and Wrigley believe in benefits of sugar-free, which is why we also accredit a range of their sugar-free chewing gum. It is just one of the ways to protect healthy smiles and we recommend chewing it after meals and in-between brushing.

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Wrigley supporting National Smile Month

Children have a way of putting a smile on our face no matter what the day brings. The largest ever study of smiles – ‘The Smile Back Study’, conducted by Cambridge University in partnership with Wrigley’s Extra^®, proves that children actually do possess superpowers when it comes to smiling – with adults smiling as much as 13% more in the presence of children than when in the presence of adults.

With a goal of protecting and spreading children’s infectious smiles, Wrigley’s Extra^® is helping to support National Smile Month with the The Extra^® Smile Back™ Project – a new cause-related campaign, designed  to educate families on the importance of good oral health. As a Silver Sponsor for National Smile Month, Wrigley’s Extra^® is proud to be showcasing its increased commitment to protecting smiles with a campaign that funds education at the heart of the community.

Chewing sugar free gum is just one way to protect healthy smiles and has been proven to help protect your teeth. That’s why Extra is accredited by the Oral Health Foundation who recommends chewing sugar free gum after meals and in between brushing to protect teeth.

So for every pack of its sugar free gum sold, Wrigley’s Extra^® will make a donation to its chosen charity partner, Action for Children, to fund children’s oral health education. It will be donating a minimum of £250,000, and this money will create the charity’s first ever oral health programme for families around the UK.  A total of 690 educational sessions – endorsed by the Oral Health Foundation – will take place in children centres and family support services across the UK from August 2016 to August 2017. Over 10,000 children and 5,000 parents are set to benefit from the programme.

To highlight the importance of protecting children’s smiles, Wrigley’s Extra^® has also created a captivating children’s book – The Lost Smile – in partnership with award-winning children’s author and playwright Joseph Coelho, illustrator Sheena Dempsey and  charity partner Action for Children.  The book, supported by dental professionals from the Oral Health Foundation, centres on the story of a little boy who can’t find his parents’ smiles and goes on a smile hunt.

So curl up on the couch with your little ones to celebrate National Smile Month with a copy of The Lost Smile. Visit www.smileback.wrigley.co.uk to purchase the book and find out more about the Extra Smile Back Project.