Educating parents on the importance of early orthodontic intervention
The Truth Fairy pays a visit to educate parents on the importance of early orthodontic intervention between the ages of 8–10.
THE CHALLENGE
Getting the best outcomes for your child’s teeth can be time dependent. In fact, orthodontists recommend a checkup between ages 8 and 10 in order to see how a child’s mouth and jaw is developing and catch any issues before they evolve – it can be easier and cheaper to fix many problems before the adult teeth are all in place. Yet many parents default to dental checkups rather than going to a specialist in their child’s early years. So we needed to educate Australians about the role orthodontists can play in ensuring every Australian gets the best health outcomes across their lifetime. But orthodontists can be scary and the importance of this moment in time is not widely known.
THE SOLUTION
We devised a public education campaign that encourages parents to include an 8–10 year old orthodontic visit as a key health milestone for their children, by creating a mnemonic and easy-to-remember milestone for this age group: “Checkup before they grow up” associates the milestone of a child losing their first teeth with booking a child’s first orthodontist visit. In short, once the tooth fairy is in town, it’s time to book a visit to the Truth Fairy.
Not only does this give parents a moment in time to take action around, it also re-positions orthodontists as beloved children’s characters – softening their appeal and doubling down on the fact that they’re the only specialists with the right training and experience to tell you the Truth about your child’s teeth and jaw.
The Results
The goal for this campaign was to build and reach new audiences as well as drive them to book an appointment with an orthodontist. We’ve had more visits to the website and an increase of 17% to the Finder Tool. There have been over 4 million video views and over 10 million impressions to date.