National Smile Month is the UK’s largest oral health campaign, run annually by the Oral Health Foundation. The 2025 edition will take place between 12 May and 12 June 2025. The campaign aims to raise awareness of important oral health issues and promote the benefits of a healthy smile to millions of people across the nation. This year’s theme is "Feed Your Smile," focusing on the relationship between diet and oral health. The campaign encourages participation from individuals, communities, schools, and businesses to help spread key oral health messages and make a positive difference to public oral health.
Understanding National Smile Month and Its Objectives
National Smile Month is a charity campaign dedicated to championing the benefits of good oral health and promoting the value of a healthy smile. The Oral Health Foundation runs this initiative to raise awareness of critical health issues between 12 May and 12 June 2025. The campaign seeks to engage the public in activities that support better oral health for everyone. Maintaining a healthy smile can be straightforward, yet for many people, it remains a significant challenge. Despite improvements in oral health over the last four decades, inequalities continue to burden countless individuals. By supporting National Smile Month, participants can help reach communities where oral disease is far too common. The campaign provides an opportunity to reach people in the heart of the community and share important oral health messages.
The core objective is to create happier, healthier smiles for all. The Oral Health Foundation believes that everybody deserves a healthy smile, as a person’s oral health is a crucial part of their overall wellbeing. After nearly 50 years, the charity continues to provide oral health support and assistance to anyone who needs it. Supporting the campaign helps the foundation reach groups where oral disease is prevalent and promotes the four key messages for better oral health.
The 2025 Theme: Feed Your Smile
The theme for National Smile Month 2025 is "Feed Your Smile." This theme directs attention to the critical link between diet and oral health. The campaign provides extensive resources and information on how diet influences the health of teeth and gums. Under this theme, the Oral Health Foundation offers guidance on various aspects of diet and oral health, including top food tips, smart snacking, hydration, the role of dairy foods, the gut health link, how sugar affects the smile, and the impact of acidic foods and drinks. The campaign also highlights the worst foods and drinks for teeth.
The "Feed Your Smile" theme is integrated into the campaign’s key messages and educational resources, encouraging participants to cut down on how much and how often they have sugary foods and drinks. This focus aligns with one of the four core messages promoted during National Smile Month.
Key Oral Health Messages
During National Smile Month, the Oral Health Foundation promotes four key messages for better oral health. These messages form the foundation of all campaign activities and educational materials. The four key messages are:
- Brush teeth for two minutes, last thing at night and one other time during the day, with a fluoride toothpaste.
- Clean between your teeth with interdental brushes or floss, and use fluoride mouthwash every day.
- Cut down how much and how often you have sugary foods and drinks.
- Visit a dentist regularly.
The campaign emphasises that no matter how individuals or organisations decide to support the campaign, it is important to help communicate these vital messages. These principles are consistently reinforced across all campaign resources, activities, and promotional materials.
How to Participate and Get Involved
There are numerous ways for individuals, professionals, schools, and communities to participate in National Smile Month 2025. The campaign provides a variety of activities and resources to make involvement accessible and engaging. For those who want to get involved but do not know where to start, the Oral Health Foundation offers lots of new and exciting activities to participate in during the campaign period.
Activities for the General Public and Individuals
Individuals can join the nation’s biggest oral health campaign and help bring a smile to millions of people. The campaign encourages the public to take part and make a positive difference to the oral health of millions. One popular activity is using the "Smiley," a simple, fun, and educational tool that makes it impossible not to show a smile behind it. More than half a million people have used the Smiley over the years. Information about the Smiley and how to obtain it is available on the campaign website.
Activities for Professionals and Businesses
Professionals, including health professionals and those in the dental industry, are encouraged to take part. The campaign offers specific activities designed for professionals to promote oral health within their networks and communities. Businesses can also show their support by using official design templates to create promotional materials that highlight their involvement in the campaign. These templates allow businesses to add their own logo, demonstrating their backing for this year’s campaign.
Activities for Schools
Schools are a key audience for National Smile Month. The campaign provides dedicated activities for educational settings to help teach children and young people about the importance of oral health. Resources are tailored to be educational and engaging for school-aged children, helping to instil good habits from a young age.
Fundraising
Fundraising is another important way to support the Oral Health Foundation and National Smile Month. Every donation received goes directly towards improving people’s quality of life through better oral health. The funds support the charity’s campaigns, programmes, and charitable work. The foundation thanks supporters for their generous contributions.
Official Resources and Downloadable Materials
The Oral Health Foundation provides a wide range of downloadable resources to support participation in National Smile Month 2025. These resources are designed to be practical, educational, and easy to use.
Campaign Guide and Educational Resources
A new National Smile Month 2025 campaign guide is available for download. This guide is intended to be shared with teams for ideas and inspiration on how to get involved and support the campaign. The guide also contains lots of educational resources specially designed to help raise awareness about the importance of good oral health. These resources are tailored for different audiences, including health professionals and the general public.
Poster & Guide 2025
The "Poster & Guide 2025" is a key resource that includes the campaign guide and educational materials. This resource pack is designed to help promote the campaign and its key messages effectively.
Design Templates and Custom Image Tools
For the first time in 2025, the Oral Health Foundation provided tools to create official #SmileMonth images for free using Canva. These custom image tools were available for the 2025 campaign, allowing individuals and organisations to create personalised social media visuals. A Canva account, which can be created for free, was required to use these templates. Official templates were available for various social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram posts, and Instagram stories. The foundation noted that since National Smile Month 2025 has ended, these specific links are no longer active. However, due to the popularity and positive reception of these templates, the foundation plans to bring back custom image tools for the 2026 campaign.
Pre-made Social Media Posts
The campaign offered pre-made social media packages to download and share online. These packages were designed to help spread positive oral health messages further. The posts within these packages covered essential topics such as: * Brushing teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste. * Cleaning in between teeth. * Cutting down sugar in the diet. * Visiting the dentist. * Using fluoride mouthwash.
Additionally, two posts within the packages included space for users to add their own logo, allowing businesses or practices to show their support for the year’s campaign.
Other Downloadable Resources
Beyond the main campaign guide and social media tools, the Oral Health Foundation offers a variety of other downloadable resources. These include materials focusing on specific aspects of oral health, such as how to clean teeth, why mouthwash matters, diet and oral health, and general wellbeing. These resources are available on the foundation’s website under the "Downloads" section.
Supporting the Campaign: Why It Matters
Supporting National Smile Month is crucial for addressing ongoing oral health inequalities in the UK. Despite significant improvements over the last 40 years, many individuals still face barriers to maintaining good oral health. By participating in the campaign, individuals and organisations can help reach groups where oral disease is far too common. The campaign provides a chance to reach people in the heart of the community and share vital health messages. Supporting the campaign contributes to the Oral Health Foundation’s mission to provide oral health support and help to anybody who needs it, reinforcing the belief that everybody deserves a healthy smile.
Conclusion
National Smile Month 2025, running from 12 May to 12 June, is a comprehensive campaign focused on the theme "Feed Your Smile." It promotes four key oral health messages and offers a wide array of participation opportunities for the public, professionals, schools, and businesses. The Oral Health Foundation provides extensive downloadable resources, including a campaign guide, educational materials, design templates, and pre-made social media posts to facilitate involvement. While specific tools for creating custom images were available for the 2025 campaign, they are noted to be returning for 2026. The campaign’s core purpose is to raise awareness, address oral health inequalities, and help millions achieve better oral health through education and community engagement.