Oral Health Education students’ Challenge:
Leading Changes with the new generations
across Europe and the mediterranean countries
The inaugural Oral Health Education Challenge (OEPC)—launched in partnership with Montpellier Santé Orale, Colgate Europe, and the European Association of Dental Public Health (EADPH)—has demonstrated how multidisciplinary teams of students can be involved in innovative oral health education activities. Four pioneering universities—Lisbon, Valencia, Montpellier, and Alexandria—took part in this first edition. Their mission: design, implement and evaluate an innovative oral health education intervention targeted at adolescents and young adults. All projects were developed in open access, ensuring their transferability.
EADPH to support the scientific value of the project
In 2025, EADPH provided the evaluation committee, gathering expert board members to assess the projects according to rigorous criteria: scientific relevance, clarity and coherence of objectives, innovation, quality of educational content, inter-professionality, implementation, evaluation methodology & potential impacts
A team effort to create innovative educational supports
Across all universities, students showed exceptional creativity, by creating escape games, digital campaigns, using AI-based tools, narrative approaches, multisensory learning environments, and hybrid educational strategies. The challenge succeeded in its core ambition: mobilizing students from different backgrounds on the topic of oral health, dental students but also students in digital sciences, dietetics, management, speech therapy or social sciences. Multidisciplinary teamwork emerged as one of the major added value highlighted by participants and academic supervisors.
2025 Winner: Université de Montpellier
The Montpellier team stood out with an innovative, experiential intervention rooted in behavioral science and designed with a strong interprofessional collaboration.
The winning students have been honored during the EADPH 29th Congress in Rome, fostering international visibility and networking.
Participants feedback
Student feedback emphasized their high level of motivation and excellent team spirit; strong learning outcomes in prevention, the value of inter-disciplinary work and the wish for greater visibility of the challenge on campuses. Academic supervisors highlighted the easiness of participation, the relevance for public health education, and the benefit of an international exchange.
A Call to Join the 2026 Edition
In 2026, the objectives are to expand participation to 12 universities and to strengthen inter-professionality which will be mandatory. Universities across Europe along with mediterranean countries are called to join the next edition and contribute building a collaborative and innovative community, committed to improving people’s oral health. Universities willing to participate must send a letter of intent before January 15, 2026. The theme will be announced on March 20 , 2026 , World Oral Health Day.
Looking Ahead for the future of the OHEC challenge
Encouraged by the success of the first edition, the idea is therefore to create a dedicated library of students’ projects on the EADPH website. This library would then be a European platform for student-led innovations in oral public health—a space where creativity, scientific rigor and international collaboration converge.
Contact : innovations-officer@eadph.org
