Dental Health in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

It turns out that Darth Vader had a passion for oral health.

Most people are familiar with marketing tie-ins for popular movies--we’ve all seen Happy Meal toys, birthday cards, and lunchboxes featuring well-known characters. People tend to be less familiar with the variety of efforts dentists take to make dental health seem fun and important to their young patients, but every dentist who works with children knows it takes a little more than a warning about cavities to make a typical kid really care about their dental health. In 1983, to mark the release of Return of the Jedi, Oral B offered dentists Star Wars-branded appointment cards, toothbrushes, office posters, and educational “adventure booklets” to interest kids in dental care. So, while you may have noticed Kylo Ren and Rey appearing just about everywhere in the past few months, they’re hardly the first to try to turn everyday items into intergalactic events.

This advertisement is one of many ads and patient education pamphlets we have here at the Sindecuse. While they all vary in intended audience, tone, and level of commercialism, they all help underscore the importance of communication and outreach to dentists and their practices.