Worth Saving – It’s Worth our Time and Effort!

The Worth Saving Campaign is a year-round endeavor for the AAE, but the traditional start to this public awareness effort has always been Save Your Tooth Month each May.  This year was no exception, and thanks to the hard work of our staff, particularly our Marketing and Communications department, our year started off with a great deal of fanfare.  On the evening of May 12, the Prudential Center in Chicago was the backdrop for a spectacular lighting display, promoting the start of Save Your Tooth Month.  Earlier that day, the entire staff of the AAE gathered in our office to assemble 2,000 dental care kits that were distributed to Chicago school children through our partnership with the Chicago Mobile Dental Care Foundation.

The message about the importance of saving your natural teeth takes many forms through our campaign.  Due to the advocacy efforts of several dedicated members, 12 Governors issued proclamations declaring May to be Save Your Tooth Month in their respective states.  I’m proud to say that Minnesota was among the 12.  In addition to our kickoff events, an extensive media pitch resulted in over 20 radio and television interviews that were aimed at educating and encouraging the public to seek treatment options that will help them preserve their natural teeth and educating about the advantages of doing so.  The month’s media events included two in-studio on-the-air interviews in Chicago and Minneapolis, pushing me way out of my comfort zone.  The content of these interviews included information on symptoms of endodontic disease, seeking emergency care, post-trauma treatment, and how an endodontist is the best person to treat these conditions.  Emphasis was also given to making sure that patients inquire about treatment options that would help maintain their natural teeth and not just accept a referral for extraction.  The journalists involved were genuinely interested in our message.

Our digital footprint is ever expanding as well with webpages and social media devoted to patient/consumer education, addressing and dispelling misinformation, and providing patient resources.  The AAE has also engaged in influencer partnerships to help spread our message about the benefits of preserving natural teeth.  A link to the recently released study from King’s College in London regarding the systemic health benefits of endodontic treatment garnered more than 144 million media impressions, introducing the public to science-based evidence that root canal treatment can have a positive effect on one’s whole-body health status.

In addition to the public education resources, there are multiple items available for members to assist you in promoting Save Your Tooth all year long.  These include the Whole-Body Benefits webpage, Referral patterns webpage, our new Trauma Guidelines, as well as the Save Your Tooth Month toolkit.  Consider sharing these at your local dental society meetings if the opportunity presents itself.

So why are we trying so hard to get our message in front of the public versus the general dental community?  Well, those of you old enough to remember our initial public awareness campaign that was directed toward general dentists, you might remember the financial assessment that we all paid to finance that initiative, and you also might remember that it fell completely flat.  After the fact, it became apparent that our efforts were misdirected, and we needed to take our message directly to our potential patients, specifically the lay public.  One might think this would seem self-serving since we definitely depend on referrals from our general dentist colleagues, but it was clear that not all general dentists would share the option of seeing an endodontist.  Taking our message directly to the patient public has increased the general awareness of endodontists and endodontic treatment, evidenced by our increasing market share of endodontic procedures performed on an annual basis.  We are still the only specialty to enjoy this surge in public awareness and demand for specialty care.  So I would like to offer thanks on your behalf to Kim, Elisabeth and Rae in our Marketing and Communications department for getting our message out there.  So let’s all do our part to propagate that message that teeth are Worth Saving, and that endodontists are just the people to take care of that task.