Oral Health magazine celebrated its 100th anniversary with a special edition that features article contributions by all its board members and sports four special covers, one with an embossed futuristic feel and three others looking at the publication's changing look since 1911.

"We wanted to do something special [for the anniversary]," said editorial director Catherine Wilson. "We don't get many magazines hitting 100 anymore, especially these days," she said.


The magazine is distributed by controlled circulation to every third and fourth year dental student, dental lab and practicing dentist in the country. It has a circulation of 20,000, up from its 500 subscribers a century ago. It is produced monthly but the anniversary issue is a special 13th issue for 2011.

The anniversary issue is the journal's biggest ever at 164 pages, with an ad to editorial ratio of 50:50. Regular issues have a ratio of 55:45. One-time page rates remained the same and advertiser support was strong.

"They really came through," said Wilson of her clients, "which is why we were able to do such a large magazine." Oral Health advertisers include Crest, 3M and Oral B. "Some of [our advertisers] have been around for 50, 75, 100 years and more, so we really appreciated them being on board with us," Wilson said.


With the issue's content geared towards reflecting on the development of the dental profession, it has a consumerist feel and features less "gory photos" than usual, Wilson said. "We were able to tone that down a little bit," she laughed.

"We're getting great feedback and it's nice to have the book going into the second hundred years as successfully as it is," Wilson said.

Produced by the Glacier Media Group and printed by Print West, Oral Health is a for-profit clinical journal. The 100th anniversary issue reached its readership last week.