On 24 May 2018 the first global dental twitter event took place, with dental professionals tweeting and sharing their work using the hashtag #dentisty24.
In its first year, the event generated over two million twitter impressions from over 200 individual dental tweeters across the globe.
The #dentistry24 campaign was initiated following the success of #pharmacy24, which generated over 25 million twitter impressions this year.
UK dentistry goes global
#dentistry24 Twitter Activity and Interaction: NodeXL SNA Map and Report for Friday, 25 May 2018 at 18:00 UTC
With tweets from all over the UK, Australia and the US, #dentistry24 kick-started with a great first year.
Fun photos of dental teams at work, pictures of oral health promotion, students at university, dentists on study days and TFL staff promoting it on their quote of the day, flooded the twitter account in a constant stream.
Dental celebrities and the Chief Dental Officers from Scotland and Wales also joined in promoting the event from their twitter accounts.
The Sylvanian Families dentist also made a guest appearance!
What made the event truly unique were the great initiatives and charity work being shared from many organisations and charities.
The event wouldn't have been a success without all the enthusiastic individuals who tweeted, and supportive organisations, including the BDA and other dental and allied health professional organisations who promoted the event to their members.
What's next?
We plan for #dentistry24 to be an online event which will take place annually on 24th May every year to celebrate and promote all the good work of the profession.
Its purpose is to increase positivity and morale whilst facilitate shared learning and networking. It's a chance for everyone involved in dentistry - dental teams, academics, industry, students, universities and professional bodies - to participate and share good news and good practice.
Since its creation, the official #dentistry24 twitter account @UKDentisty24 has over 400 global followers.
We all know dentistry often receives a lot of negative press and we'd like to change that, why not join the #dentistry24 movement to promote all the good that we do?
Follow @UKDentistry24 and look out for updates for next years' event.
Devika Vadher
Clinical Fellow in Dental Public Health
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