Dental Nurse Jo Dawson wins Philips-sponsored place on Smile Revolution course
UncategorisedPosted by: Dental Design 8th December 2020
Philips Oral Healthcare recently offered one dental professional the chance to win a sponsored place on the second of Smile Revolution’s 5-week course to ‘Launch Your Own Oral Health Promotional Project/Business’. The place was won by Jo Dawson, a Dental Nurse who works at Devonshire House Dental Practice, Cambridge.
The course is designed to help dental professionals plan the launch of an oral health promotion venture; Philips sponsored the place – worth £1,000 – as a way of reinforcing its ongoing support to dental professionals.
The Smile Revolution’s mission of the course is to drive leadership in dentistry through innovation in oral health promotion. As Victoria Wilson, creator of Smile Revolution, explained “Philips has already supported us on numerous occasions; from the very beginning, the company has been so invested in dental professionals’ education and it is reassuring that decades later, Philips is still providing an amazing level of support. I am so grateful that the company believes in my vision and can see the potential impact of this course for dental professionals and the publics oral health. It is hugely encouraging.”
Victoria Wilson
Over a five-week period, those attending the course are set specific tasks to work towards and are asked to put together a viable, sustainable oral health promotional project / business model, drawing on elements discussed throughout the programme. At the end of the five weeks, the hope is that they will have learnt the tools of how to create a viable, sustainable oral health promotional project / business proposal and moving towards launching their project. As part of Philips’ ongoing sponsorship a mentoring element is also added for the winner to help them continue to take their project forward at the end of the five weeks.
Projects can be anything participants wish them to be. There may be an opportunity to develop a venture under the umbrella of a dental practice, with the collaboration and support of the dentists or practice owner. Alternatively, it could be a scheme within the community, using the clinic as the hub. Or it could be a totally separate venture outside the clinical setting. The sky is the limit as to the number of opportunities to uncover, and it is also about unleashing the potential of delegates who may not have had the confidence to take that leap of faith before the programme. The Smile Revolution course is designed to empower individuals and help them find solutions to excel in existing and new one arenas.
The idea for the course took shape at the start of the Covid pandemic. As the pandemic began to take over, it became so apparent that clinicians were no longer able to work clinically and as a result the public’s oral health was suffering,” Victoria recalled. “At this point, I had been running the Smile Revolution for two years and felt now was the time to share everything I knew to support others in launching sustainable oral health projects as I have.”
“I began to collate the most relevant resources that have supported the developments of the Smile Revolution over the last five years. I consolidated them into a course and launched the five-week programme, How To Launch An Oral Health Promotion Project/Business. The aim was to teach the students everything I know and have learnt in the process of creating the Smile Revolution, to support their individual development in their own projects that they uncover throughout the process. I further support the students with mentoring during the five weeks additional to the set webinar settings based on the need. The course consists of a one-hour, live webinar every Monday and a online classroom every Sunday. An integral element of the course supports innovation and leadership in dentistry. It has been so gratifying to see such a wide range of projects evolving from the course.”
Jo Dawson, the recipient of the second Philips sponsored place said, “I was delighted to find out that I had won a place on the course. I am passionate about preventing caries but stuck about how to have the greatest impact in addressing the problem. It breaks my heart to think about kids having fillings let alone GAs. I wanted to raise awareness of how easy it is to prevent tooth decay in particular, and for example, to stop parents giving out raisins as snacks to primary school children – as a starting point. I’ve been trying to make a change on my own, but thought this input and support could really help me make things happen. I’ve been doing online business webinars and Dental CPD but nothing that overlapped that could support taking things forward. I want to thank Philips for its generous sponsorship.”
After attending the first digital course session and being set my homework for the week, I already started to feel excited and curious as to where this journey would take me. The 1st webinar was surprising, inspiring and uplifting. The content is nothing like any other dental CPD or business course I’ve ever seen. It was quite a revelation and could well be the beginning of a revolution. The messages installed in me from the first lesson was, don’t give up! We all have a valuable contribution to make and we can find our niche. Have confidence. Using our own personal inspirations and working honestly about our motivations we can develop ideas to create sustainable and viable projects that will succeed, as well as being personally rewarding. The whole inspiration side of things makes so much sense. I’ve really had a mind blast and lots of ideas are flowing around. Looking at things differently and limitlessly, which has been a revelation and very positive. It has given me some new areas to explore and some old contacts remembered who I can reconnect with in a new way.
To all dental professionals. Although I’m sure, half the reason there is still a problem with caries and gum disease globally is because the profession is so busy doing dentistry, and we haven’t all got time or energy to expand beyond our busy practice day list. This course also helps to focus on life-balancing too – with the opportunity to experience yoga as part of this.”
Discussing her own inspiration – for the creation of the – Smile Revolution, Victoria explained: “In 2015, I completed my BSc in oral health promotion with O’Hehir University and in 2017, I was invited to a social responsibility conference held by the International Federation of Dental Hygienists, showcasing sustainable oral health promotional projects around the world. They called on all representatives from varying nations to lead on social responsibility in our retrospective countries. At the time I was in the UAE but soon returned to the UK where the concept of the Smile Revolution evolved.
“The Smile Revolution focussed on supporting leadership in dentistry from the outset, from showcasing dental professionals via the Smile Revolution Podcast series. The philosophy behind the podcast is based on sharing knowledge to support the advancement of all dental professionals. The next step has been to launch the courses. New course dates are to be announced for 2021 which will also be supported by Philips, as the company is funding further sponsored places to ensure that cost is no barrier to entry for those who would like to further their ambitions.”
For more information, visit http://www.smile-revolution.net/.
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