RICHMOND (May 11, 2015) – A crowded market full of people coming, going and eating lunch. Suddenly, people stop and notice a dental chair in the middle of the action and a dentist ready to offer oral cancer screenings. What’s going on?
On Thursday, May 14 from 11 am – 1 pm, the Virginia Dental Association (VDA) will bring a portable dental chair to the Downtown Mall. Anyone in the crowd is welcome to sit in the dental chair and allow a trained VDA-member dentist to provide a two-minute screening for oral cancer. The process is non-invasive and doesn’t require instruments; the dentist simply checks in and around the mouth area for abnormalities.
Each year, 42,000 people are diagnosed with and 8,000 die from oral cancer. That’s why the Virginia Dental Association wants to make sure all Virginians are screened for the deadly disease.
“We are excited to bring our ‘Where’s the Chair?’ campaign to Charlottesville,” says Dr. Michael Link, President of the Virginia Dental Association. “We expect to catch the public by surprise with the dental chair in such an uncommon place, but every Virginian needs to be screened for oral cancer so why not take the cause right to the people?”
In February 2015, the VDA staged a “Where’s the Chair?” event at a popular lunchtime destination in Roanoke. And in summer 2014, the chair popped up at a happy hour in the Town Center district of Virginia Beach. In Charlottesville, VDA-member dentists will again screen people “off the street” for oral cancer.
In addition, the dentists will provide resources for oral health services in the area and information on how to find a VDA-member dentist in the Charlottesville area. People can also snap “Healthy Selfies” while in the dental chair to share on social media and encourage friends and family to be screened for oral cancer.
“Oral cancer is serious business, but we want to take a creative approach and make our efforts memorable,” says Link. “If someone walks away from the Downtown Mall on May 14 and talks about the importance of oral cancer screenings, that’s a victory.”
Media: To find the exact location of the dental chair, contact Danny Rubin of Rubin Communications Group after 9 am ET on May 14. Danny can be reached at danny@rubincommunications.com or 757-285-7617.
