I don’t know about you, but I feel 2023 is going to give us a lot to celebrate.  So in a moment of true excitement, I decided to gather all the dental related holidays and how you, your dental practice, your patients and your team can best celebrate them!  Let’s get these parties started!

National Dental Holidays

January

• Medical Group Practice Week (4th week of January) – the 4th week of January, which falls on January 23rd in 2023, is Medical Group Practice Week.  A medical group is 3 or medical professionals working together to treat patients.  Thus, your dental practice is a Medical Group.  Treat you and your team to some yummy (but healthy) goodies.    

February

• Children’s Dental Health Month – Celebrate all month long with extra goodies for your tiny patients.
• Gum Disease Awareness Month – Nobody wants to celebrate gum disease, but you should use the month of February to really bring awareness to your patients.  This website has some great ideas on how you and your team can participate in Gum Disease Awareness Month.  
• Toothache Day (Feb 9) – A toothache is another dental ailment nobody really wants to celebrate.  But maybe use this day as an excuse to remind all our overdue patients they need to come in and see you.   
• Tooth Fairy Day (Feb 28) – The tooth fairy actually gets celebrated 2 times each year (Feb 28th and August 22nd).  Have fun with this and let your team dress up as tooth fairies!  

March

• Dental Assistants Recognition Week (1st full week of March) – The first full week of March is Dental Assistants Recognition Week (March 5th – March 11th in 2023)!  Make sure to celebrate all week long with gifts, lunches and fun events!
• Dentist Day (March 6) – To wrap up Dental Assistants Recognition Week, you get to thank your Dentist for all their love and support.  This year Dentist Day falls on a Saturday, so make sure to try to celebrate before you leave for the weekend. 

April

• Oral Cancer Awareness Month – Do your part by offering Oral Cancer Screenings to all your patients.  Or you could hold an event (should COVID be under control) where you block off 3 to 4 hours and open your practice to walk-in who would like to be screened.  You can find others ways to do your part here.  
• National Facial Protection Month – April is also National Facial Protection Month.  Take this opportunity to chat with all your athlete patients about the benefits of a properly fitted mouth guard.

May

• Save Your Tooth Month – This month is all about focusing on saving natural teeth.  Talk with your patients about the benefits of caring for their teeth, and make sure to give your referred Endodontist some love.  
• Root Canal Day (2nd Wednesday of May) – Send your Endodontist friends some extra love today
  (May 10th in 2023). 
• National Smiles Month (May 16th to June 16th) – Pick a dental focused charity (like Fresh Start Surgical Gifts) and donate your time to helping those in need get a beautiful smile. Other ideas on how to celebrate can be found here.

June

• National Smiles Month (May 16th to June 16th) – We’re repeating here as this technically covers two months. Pick a dental focused charity (like Fresh Start Surgical Gifts) and donate your time to helping those in need get a beautiful smile.

August

• Tooth Fairy Day (Aug 22nd) – The 2nd Tooth Fairy Day is here!  Get ready to bust out your costumes and have fun!

September

• Office Manager Appreciation Month – Get ready to spoil the person that keeps your office in tip top shape.  Gifts and goodies are welcome!  To better understand what your office manager is going through read this.  

October

• Dental Hygiene Month – Use this month to celebrate dental hygiene.  Have contests for your patients who demonstrate superior hygiene skills and make sure to thank your hygienist daily!
• World Smile Day (First Friday in October) – This isn’t necessarily a dental holiday.  Rather a day focused on making yourself and others smile.  But still you should celebrate all those gorgeous smiles you help create. You could have a social media contest where you ask your patients to post a picture of their smiles and have them tag your office.  Make sure to pick a winner and have a great prize to give them!   Here are some other ways to celebrate! World Smile Day falls on October 6th this year.

November

• TMJ Awareness Month – Send a newsletter to your patients letting them know about the symptoms of TMJ.  Then offer an event where walk-ins are welcome to your office for consults.  
• Mouth Cancer Action Month – November is also Mouth Cancer Awareness Month.  Make sure to offer screening to every patient that visits.  And maybe have an event where people can come in for free screenings (great way to bring in new patients).  You can even use THIS POSTER from The Mouth Cancer Foundation, to let your community know about your event. 
• Brush Day (November 1) – National Brush Day aims to reinforce children’s dental health.  If your first Brush-a-Thon event, from Toothbrush Day, was a success, throw another one! 

December

• Handwashing Awareness week (the first FULL week of December) – Use your platform to spread the word about the benefits of washing our hands. Make a fun video with your team, showing how to properly wash your hands and post to your social media.  Here are some fun facts about Handwashing Awareness Week.  Handwashing Awareness Week is from December 5th to December 11th this year.

Now, some of these holidays do seem a bit repetitive… 

Oral Cancer Awareness Month AND Mouth Cancer Action Month

TWO Tooth Fairy days?!?!?!

But hey, it is all in good fun!  So just go with it.  

These Dental Holidays are great marketing tools.  Use these days in your patient newsletters, post about them on social media, have fun contests and events for your patients and potential patients. And make sure to recognize yourself and your team during the recognition weeks and everyday.  

Smiles, 

Holli Perez
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