13 June 2018

Ghanaian born Dr Dery Tuopar has been announced as the final winner of Nominate A Smile – a nationwide search to find special individuals who deserve recognition for their impact in the community.

Oral surgeon, Dery Tuopar (54), from Northamptonshire, was selected by campaign organisers, the Oral Health Foundation, because of his decades of commitment and dedication to promote good oral health across the UK and across the world.

Dery, who works at Trinity Dental in Rothwell, was nominated for the award by the Clinic Manager Rebecca Shaw, who calls Dery “the most influential, knowledgeable surgeon” she has ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Speaking of Dery, Rebecca says “We are fortunate at Trinity Dental to have Dery and be able to learn from his wealth of knowledge and all feel truly inspired by his experiences and love of surgery.

As part of the nomination, dental nurse Victoria Vandervelden, shed light on the charity work he does in his spare time and how he used the death of his late grandmother as motivation to help people in different countries gain better oral health.

Victoria says: “It started when his grandmother died, and the hospital asked for the mortuary blanket back as they have very limited supplies. Dery then decided each year he would take a team of medics to treat people with no access to health care in Ghana, a very poor country.

“He funds it himself with a close group of friends and locals will walk for days to see him and his team.

“Back in the UK, if Dery spends an extraordinary amount of his own time visiting the cancer patients which he has diagnosed. 

“He is truly remarkable.”

Alongside his work at Trinity Dental, Dery works in the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery department in Northampton General Hospital as an associate specialist, a role he has held for 20 years. 

Nominate A Smile is a key part of National Smile Month, a charity campaign to promote good oral health, and sets out to find very special people with stories and smiles that have the power to lift and inspire all those around them.

Dr Nigel Carter OBE, CEO of the Oral Health Foundation, said: “Dery is a true embodiment of what the Nominate A Smile competition is all about. He is undoubtedly a very special individual, whose dedication to helping others is extremely uplifting.

“If the kind words said of him by people he works closely with weren’t enough to illustrate how much of a credit he his to his profession, the charity work he has done both in and outside the UK really hammer home what a worthy winner of our competition he is.”

National Smile Month communicates the importance of good oral health and what everybody can do to achieve a health mouth.

The Oral Health Foundation wants to encourage more people to brush their teeth last thing at night and at one other time during the day with a fluoride toothpaste.

During National Smile Month, the charity is also keen to highlight the importance of cutting down on how much and how often people have sugary foods and drinks, as well as encouraging regular dental visits. 

Visit the National Smile Month section of our website to find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved in the future.