Spreading the word about good oral healthcare in the Bay of Plenty is entering the social media space and going online with a dedicated webpage.
The Bay of Plenty District Health Board's oral health team runs the Talkteeth-bopdhb Facebook page and on Friday followed this with the BOPDHB Talk Teeth
webpage.
The health board's dental services health promotion officer Teneille Ogilvy said Facebook was a fun social space.
"It creates the sense of being part of a community and we want to harness that to spread the oral healthcare message.
"We want to reach our target audience, and hard-to-reach high risk population, and communicate our key messages on oral health while also giving people the opportunity to talk to us."
The team will make regular postings on the Talkteeth-bopdhb Facebook page with relevant oral healthcare content, interactive conversations, videos and competitions.
"We want it to be interactive and have Facebook users respond to posts and we want to be able to give quick friendly replies to the community."
The Talk Teeth webpage was launched on Friday to provide another channel for oral health information.
Community dental services oral health promoter Stephen Cameron said through conversations with the community it became clear that general knowledge of oral healthcare could be improved.
"For example, many New Zealand residents do not understand their entitlement to free basic dental care from birth until 18 years of age. This, and more, is made clear on the Talk Teeth webpages."
The webpages are broken into age ranges and major topics. The "0-4 Years" link explains how it is essential for pre-schoolers to be enrolled with Community Dental Services to access free dental care.
The "13-17 Years - The Transfer Process" link details the process for youth to move from Community Dental Services to a contracted dental provider.
The "Resources for Oral Health and Nutrition" link gives information about oral healthcare and eating for babies, youth and adults, with further information about brushing, dental care and healthy eating. This link is also ideal for oral health education for teachers, community groups and health professionals.
"Another aim of the Talk Teeth webpages is to deliver fun, healthy eating messages through healthy cooking recipes," Mr Cameron said.
"These healthy eating messages are also delivered through healthy cooking workshops or oral health presentations and activities run in the community with school groups, adolescent groups, parenting groups and early childcare centres."