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Healthy Teeth & Kids: Profiling 3 Existing Digital Strategies to Engage Children in Oral Health Larisa Naderiani, HBSc, DDS. Tufts University School of Medicine

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Significance Tooth decay (a cavity) is the #1 chronic disease in both children and adults, even though it is largely preventable.

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Rationale Childhood is when many behavioral habits are developed: nose picking, nail biting, and especially tooth brushing!

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Organizations Profiled The Nova Scotia Dental Association's Healthy Teeth Delta Dental's My Smile Kids The American Dental Association's Mouth Healthy Kids

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Healthy Teeth NSDA Healthy Teeth A non-profit joint initiative of the State School Board & State Dentists Association. 2014 NSDA Mission: To serve the needs of the States >500 dentist members Healthy Teeth Initiatives Goal: An oral education database to teach children directly and/or indirectly (i.e., via lessons taught by elementary school teachers or parents) Target Audience: Elementary school aged children, grades 3 to 6 Online Presence:

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: Web

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Blog 1 post Not maintained Twitter @theNSDA 128 followers 216 tweets (avg 2-3/wk) Inconsistent audience vs. content

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Facebook 21 likes 10 posts (avg 1-3/mo) Mainly link-based posts Instagram 0 posts Never activated

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: SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS -Site design concept is kid-friendly -Color & graphics theme maintained from site through social media, easily identifiable & consistent branding -Site navigation is user-friendly, simple -Navigation links are cyclical & repetitive -Content is interesting and multi-modal -Target audience will have access to media via school computers if not at home WEAKNESSES - Nothing is bilingual -Dead links (Instagram) -Failure to update frequently (Instagram, FB) -Email & Twitter handle not catchy or easy to remember, naming inconsistency may result in loss of followers -Content & literacy level questionable for target audience -Few social media followers OPPORTUNITIES -Given partnership with local school board & dentists, can be a platform to advertise initiative to gain popularity -Parents & teachers tab can be expanded THREATS -Not keeping up with quick pace of social media will cause loss of followers -Difficult for NPO to compete for audience attention vs. big corporate brand names with more resources (Colgate, Crest, Oral B, Sesame Street)

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: Recommendations Simple/Low Resource Social media accounts updated more frequently (i.e., daily) If too labor intensive, should streamline social media ( > depth) Twitter account re-vamped to be audience appropriate & include more RT (

: Mouth Healthy Kids ADA Mouth Healthy Mouth Healthy Kids The American Dental Association (ADA) is the largest national non-profit organization representing dentist members. 2013 ADA Mission: To serve the needs of >157k dentist members in the US Mouth Healthy Mission: To be the premier source for public dental health information and a leading advocate for oral health in the US Mouth Healthy Kids Initiatives Goal: To accomplish this mission with kids Target Audience: Elementary school aged children & pre-teens (tweens) Online Presence:

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: Web

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: Mobile Site

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: SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS -Site available in Spanish -Site available in 3 text sizes (helps early readers in target audience) -Mobile site available, no loss of content from full site, & easy to use (mobile access is key for pre-teen audience) -Given national platform, site is culturally diverse in content and graphics/photos -Top nav bar is easy to use and permanent WEAKNESSES -Complete lack of social media presence (tech dinosaur!) -Lack of density and variety in content -Failure to update content regularly -Bi-modal, uni-dimensional digital strategy -Not very inviting for younger end of target audience (school aged kids), loss of specificity with broadened scope of audience age groups OPPORTUNITIES -Social media can be added (free!) & integrated, especially given pre-teen audience group (YouTube, Twitter, FB) -Given ADAs own vast national reach with dentists and patients as well as their umbrella of sites/media access, advertising for this initiative can be easily integrated into other pre-existing projects THREATS -ADA umbrella is vast, mouthhealthy.org umbrella is again vast, mouthhealthykids.org could get lost in the matrix or marginalized (ADA has potential to confuse and over saturate own market, i.e., act as own threat) -Again due to large scope of ADA, labor & monetary resources exclusive to this initiative may be difficult to secure

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: Recommendations Simple/Low Resource Create a YouTube or Vimeo channel (as most site content is video based, these social media outlets would make the most sense). Pre-teens (tweens) can share expression & personal experiences, which is a popular means of communication for this audience. Challenging/Resource Intensive Create more original content going forward as site is currently heavily reliant on brand name pre-existing content (e.g., Sesame Street) Invest in a social media strategy which will engage pre-teens Invest in a professional web/social media based ad campaign

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So, How Do They Compare? Target-Kids, grades 3 to 6-Kids (elementary) -Parents & Teachers -Kids (elementary) -Pre-teens -Educators Site Content -Education (videos, text, info-graphics, virtual tour) -Interaction (games, experiments, activities, quiz, contests) -Education (text, stories, news, info-graphics) -Interaction (games, printed activities, quiz) -Self-diagnostic/referral element -Some education (videos, text), most education is in Educators tab -Mostly interaction (games, printed activities, quiz) Social Media -Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram -Twitter, Facebook-Nil Digital Presence -Concept/theme vibrant & engaging experience -Very kid specific -Concept is fun but visuals are bland -Tri-modal engagement: video, audio, text -Bilingual -Concept not very kid specific, also mature -Bilingual -Diversity

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In Summary Small scale, specific, well planned Poor maintenance, TLC required Large scale, excellent maintenance Inappropriate social media use Large scale, well planned, non-specific Multiple social media missed opportunities

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Resources The Nova Scotia Dental Association's Healthy Teeth http://healthyteeth.org/ http://healthyteeth.org/ Delta Dental's My Smile Kids http://www.mysmilekids.com/index.html http://www.mysmilekids.com/index.html American Dental Associations Mouth Healthy Kids http://www.mouthhealthykids.org/en/ http://www.mouthhealthykids.org/en/ General Dental Statistics & Information http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/ http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/

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Thank You! larisa.naderiani@tufts.edu