Politics and commerce intermingle in influential networks at both national and international levels to influence the public's behaviour. The principal aim is often to persuade people to consume more despite the detrimental effects on health thereby caused. When political leaders attempt to contain health service costs by misusing health education, or when commercial influences attempt to buy the public's favour through sponsorship, the health educator's task becomes correspondingly more difficult. Dental health education as a paradigm of health education labours under the same problems. But dental health workers have their own powerful network of influence for the public's good and they should take every opportunity to exploit it.