College students collaborate with local “Healthy Teeth” campaign

Over the past few weeks, a series of billboards have been utilised across Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme as part of UHNMs public awareness campaign to reduce tooth decay amongst younger generations, with two students from Newcastle College and Stafford College supporting the campaign by providing UHNM with the billboard artwork.

The growing problem of tooth decay in younger people within our local area is becoming increasingly concerning, with recent statistics showing that Stoke-on-Trent has four times the number of hospital admissions for decayed teeth than the rest of the UK. Tackling this problem in the variety of ways being explored by the hospital is hopefully going to be a big step towards better oral hygiene and more smiles in Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding areas.

Karen Juggins, Consultant Orthodontist who is leading the initiative, said: “We’re thrilled that our campaign is being given such a fantastic boost with the billboards. The artwork has been intelligently designed by some young and talented people who actually make up our target audience and will be going up in really busy parts of the city, which means that thousands of people will see them. We know that social media is also a fantastic way to educate our patients and promote orthodontics and good dental health, and Instagram offers us an opportunity to share reliable information with patients about their orthodontic treatment and oral health in general, so we are making full use of these tools too. But billboards are such a great visual thing and you can’t really miss them, so we’re hoping that people will really take notice.”

The two NSCG students, Lucy Perrin and Alex Banton, who are both studying the BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Graphic Design, have created pieces of artwork to display around the city in an attempt to aid the hospital and Karen in addressing this issue. The artwork itself is a series of fun, bold pieces, containing impactful images and slogans which are targeted towards making the audience think about the consequences of consuming sugary products.

David Holdcroft, Curriculum Leader in Graphic Design at NSCG, said: “It has been such a pleasure to work on a project like this. I’m really proud of the way the students responded to the challenge and went on to create some fantastic artwork for such a worthy cause. They deserve all the praise and plaudits for this and I hope the work has an impact not just on them, but on the local communities that we serve.”

For more information about studying a creative course at Newcastle College or Stafford College, click here, email info@nscg.ac.uk or call 01782 254254 (Newcastle College) or 01785 223800 (Stafford College)