February Dental Marketing Campaign: Gum Disease Awareness

February is gum disease awareness month, making it the perfect time to run a dental marketing campaign focused on gum health education and the importance of regular cleanings.

You already know gum disease is preventable with the right access to care and early intervention. But many patients don’t know what early warning signs to look for or how routine cleanings help them stay proactive. Between busy schedules and everyday distractions, gum health often isn’t top of mind.

That’s what makes this campaign so important. Gum disease is common, often silent, and can lead to more serious (and costly) issues when left untreated, all good reasons to encourage patients to schedule their cleanings now.

Below are several campaign ideas your team can put into action. Whether you’re a general practice or a periodontist, these tactics can help you drive appointments from both new and returning patients.

Campaign theme: Gum disease awareness

Patient groups to target:

• Patients 21+ who haven't had a cleaning appointment in over 6 months
• Patients who have experienced gum issues at their hygiene appointments (You can refer to your patient notes to see who you can include in your communications.)

Campaign Goals

• Increase hygiene visits and periodontal evaluations.
• Encourage patients who are overdue to schedule their routine cleaning.

1. Use Your Website to Promote Your Campaign

Website updates can sound intimidating, but it doesn’t mean a full redesign. Think of small updates that support your campaign theme. The reason being that 77% of patients use search engines to find a healthcare provider, so there’s a strong chance they could potentially come across your website.

Here are some ideas to implement:

• ‍Add a homepage banner: Try this copy for size. “February is gum disease Awareness month. Have you booked your annual cleaning?” ‍
• Create or refresh a gum disease/periodontal services page if your practice has one. ‍
• Add a short blog or FAQ: You can spin up a post such as “What are the early signs of gum disease, and how to reduce your risk?" One way to get the information is to interview the dentist or hygienist and turn it into a blog post and/or FAQ.

If your team doesn’t have the capacity to do all these, then aim to do one of these tasks.

2. Highlight Gum Disease Awareness in Your Next Newsletter

Newsletters aren’t going anywhere because written words still matter, so this is another key channel to use. Your entire newsletter doesn’t have to be around gum disease awareness if you have other important topics you want to spotlight. But try including one or two sections about it. Here are some ideas:

• Fast facts about gum health with sources if you include data.
• Quick self-check about bleeding gums, bad breath, and gum tenderness.
• Call-to-action can be February is gum disease awareness month. Schedule your cleaning today.

Remember, your newsletter doesn’t have to be lengthy. You can always direct them to a different page for more details.  

Some patient engagement systems have newsletter templates so use them to build your content instead of starting from scratch (unless you want to).  

3. Send Promotional Emails to Encourage Cleanings

Emails have been around for decades now, but it’s still a tried-and-true channel that people check. Here are some interesting findings from a study done by Zero Bounce:

• 93% of respondents indicated they use email every day
• 42% indicated they check their inboxes 3-5 times a day.  
• 46% indicated that the main reason they open emails from a brand is that the company sends relevant messages to them.  

Why do these stats matter? Your practice is a brand and business that your most loyal patients keep coming back for good reasons. And you have to continue to retain them or you risk them going inactive and potentially finding another dentist.  

Here’s an email sequence you can try:  

• Email #1: Awareness (Early February)
  Subject: Are Your Gums Trying to Tell You Something?
  Starts with education, not a hard pitch. Explain common symptoms like bleeding or redness and link to a relevant blog or your services page. Remember you can even link to the gum disease post we suggested earlier in this blog. ‍
• Email #2: Education+ Benefits (Mid-Month)
  ‍Subject: Gum Health = Whole-Body Health
  Highlight links between gum disease and overall health. Include a short FAQ and a clear button to book a cleaning.‍
• Email #3: Friendly Reminder (Late Feb)
  Subject: Let’s Get You Back on Track
  ‍Remind patients who haven’t visited in a while. Focus on prevention rather than pressure.

Consider pairing your emails with text messages if the patients on your targeted list have indicated that text is one of their preferred methods of communicating.  

When sending emails, only use the channel(s) your patients have indicated as their preferred methods of communication. If they don’t like email, you can consider other channels like direct mail, text, or even a phone call to remind them about scheduling their appointment. Use your patient engagement system to keep your patients’ communication preferences up to date.  

4. Use Social Media to Educate

Social media is one of the first places people go to for information so it’s in your best interest to post there.  

Here are some content ideas, formats, and channels you can post on:

Instagram

• Story: Gum disease vs. cavities: Which one is easier to miss?
• Carousel post: Three signs your gums might need extra attention
• Reel: Before it hurts: Why gum disease is called ‘silent'

‍TikTok

• Reel: Bleeding gums aren’t normal. Here are three reasons why you shouldn’t ignore them.
• AMA: Ask your dentists about early gum disease symptoms.
• Demo video: Dentist PSA! Brushing harder doesn't equal healthier gums.

Facebook

• Post: Why cleanings matter more than you think
• Post: Simple ways to keep your gums healthy
• Video: Myth vs. fact: Gum disease edition

You can always repurpose and reuse content across channels. For example, a TikTok can be repurposed as an Instagram reel and as a Facebook video. A Facebook post can be turned into a TikTok carousel post with captions. Note it might require some editing to fit each channel, but don't think that you always need to be creating new content.

Repurposing is a normal practice in social media and allows you to reinforce a message across channels. It’s also an efficient way to get more out of what you create, particularly if you’re not able to dedicate a lot of time to this area and if you're not partnering with a digital marketing agency to manage your social media.

With this campaign, you can continue to keep your schedule full and even repurpose this campaign in the future. If you’re looking for more campaign ideas, download this 12-month dental marketing campaign today.