The inventor of Dental Anxiety Day about the Swedish success case that sparked the global edition
In 2021, Rikard Virta together with his colleagues at Aqua Dental in Sweden launched the first edition of Dental Anxiety Day. The first year, it was a domestic campaign. The project was a huge success, engaged dental practitioners and patients across the whole country, and eventually won two medals in a major Swedish communications festival. News media outlets across the country highlighted the day. This year, the Dental Anxiety Day movement goes international. Here is what Rikard Virta has to say about expanding the initiative further.
Rikard Virta operates one of Sweden’s largest private dental chains. Together with his colleagues, among them Björn Klinge, senior professor in periodontology at Malmö University and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, they started the original Swedish edition of Dental Anxiety Day last year.
“We wanted to have an impact beyond our normal reach. Dentally anxious is the hardest group to reach, and that is why we need to come up with an idea to reach them. We needed to try harder and do something specific to be able to improve the dental health of everyone.”
So what is that you did with Dental Anxiety Day?
“Dental Anxiety Day is a way to counteract patients’ fears, spread knowledge about dental health and combat inequality. In that way we contribute to a better and fairer society with equal treatment of patients who have different pains and needs.”
How did you do it?
“We managed to activate social media influencers and famous ambassadors, as well as the news media and media outlets specialized in dental health.”
“During the first year, we managed to get thousands of dental care patients to visit the dentist for the first time in a long time. For us, it is the biggest victory imaginable,” says Rikard Virta.