British Dental Health Foundation

The Oral Health Foundation was formed in 1971 and is one of the World's leading independent oral health charities (registered charity number 263198). It is headquartered in the United Kingdom and aims to help the public improve their oral health and hygiene through a range of activities run under the name of the Oral Health Foundation. The current President of the Oral Health Foundation is Janet Goodwin, and the CEO is Dr Nigel Carter OBE.

On 9 July 1970, thirty dentists with others of similar interests met at the Berners hotel in London to discuss the formation of a new dental health organisation with soon-to-be Chairman Jack Manning being elected to set up a formation committee. The meeting had been the brainchild of a number of enthusiasts from the British Dental Trade Association led by John Davis and Peter de Trey. The formation committee worked in close association with the British Dental Association (BDA) over the next ten months and to then create the BDHF and a meeting was held at the Royal Society of Medicine on Friday 21 May 1971 with over sixty people attending.

Over the next eighteen months an enormous amount of activity was undertaken by the members of the formation committee to establish funding, formulate the Articles and Memorandum of Association and apply to the Charity commissioners for registration as a charity. The charity was to be unique amongst dental bodies in that membership would be open to not only the profession, but also ancillaries and corporate members from the dental trade.

On 26 October 1971, the first meeting of initial subscribers was held at the Royal Society of Medicine. Jack Manning was elected the first Chairman of Council, John Davis the honorary secretary and Martin Seymour the Treasurer. Mr Douglas Lewis was to be appointed as the first consultant director. The Association for the Preservation of Dental Health Ltd, trading as the British Dental Health Foundation (later to become the Oral Health Foundation) was born. Its main aim had been defined as 'To preserve the dental health of the community in all its aspects and in particular to educate the community in the benefits of achieving and maintaining the highest standards of dental health'.

At the time, this type of public activity, which would rely on funding from the dental trade as well as the profession and involve the whole dental team, was not considered by the BDA to be appropriate to its role as the dentist's professional association, trade union and negotiating body. Indeed, it was not until some eighteen years later, after one or two previous abortive forays into the world of public relations that the BDA set up its press office with ex-Oral Health Foundation Executive Director Lynn Stroud at the helm.

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