American Dental Association: Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards 2024

Campaign: Acute Dental Pain Management Guidelines for Adolescents and AdultsAgency/Firm: N/A Client: American Dental Association The American Dental Association was faced with a challenge regarding one of the most important health subjects, acute dental pain management. Early this year, the group had to get the word to dentists about new guidelines for treating tooth pain in adolescents and adults without using addictive opioids. The ADA was working from new guidelines to prescribe nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, alone or along with acetaminophen to treat toothaches. The ADA worked with communications teams at several partner organizations and developed a marketing push that covered news wires and social media to spread the information. The press blitz reached an audience of 447 million people through news outlets including The Associated Press, the ADA said. The social media campaign with 10 posts reached 316,000 impressions, the group said. The research behind the new guidelines was the second-most downloaded from the Journal of the American Dental Association, with 9,500 downloads, the group said. The ADA’s push was deemed so successful that it’s now being used as a model for other health organizations and government agencies. “The FDA asked ADA communications to present this campaign strategy as a model of effective communication for clinical practice guidelines to federal partners like the CDC and other health organizations,” the ADA said in its Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards submission.