The significance of the mouth as part of our health and wellbeing is often overlooked and underappreciated. This shouldn’t be the case. World Oral Health Day, marked annually on March 20, presents a timely opportunity to reflect on why we must reconsider our attitudes towards oral health and give it the attention it deserves.
The World Health Organization estimates that oral diseases affect nearly 3.5 billion people globally. That’s close to 50 per cent of the world’s estimated 7.7 billion population. What’s more concerning is that oral diseases, unlike most diseases, can affect people throughout their lifetime.
Oral diseases can have far-reaching consequences beyond your mouth. This is because good oral health not only enables you to functionally perform as a human being (speaking, smiling, smelling, eating) but is also important for communication and human relationships. Our vision of ourselves and how we are seen by others are all influenced by our oral appearance.
The socioeconomic impact of oral diseases cannot be overstated. Most people often seek treatment for oral diseases when complications arise or compound, instead of regularly, compelling them to make hefty out of pocket payments and impacting their economic wellbeing.
The ironic fact about oral diseases is that the most prevalent oral disease, not just in Kenya but globally, is also the most preventable one. Dental caries, also known as tooth decay or dental cavities, is the most common untreated health condition in the world, according to the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Report.
Dental caries results when plaque forms on the surface of a tooth and converts the free sugars contained in foods and drinks into acids that destroy the tooth over time. Continued high intake of free sugars, inadequate exposure to fluoride and a lack of removal of plaque by toothbrushing are the factors that lead to tooth decay.
The most effective defence against tooth decay is proper tooth brushing – at least two times a day using the proper technique. During the Covid-19 pandemic, bad oral care habits became more prevalent, with toothbrushing twice a day decreasing among both parents and children, according to research from Unilever.
Habits clearly need to change for oral health to improve. The theme of 2022’s World Oral Health Day commemorations, 'Parents acting as role models', is a timely solution to effect this much-needed behaviour change.
Kids are seven times more likely to skip toothbrushing if their parents do too, according to the FDI World Dental Federation. The adult population therefore has a responsibility to take up the challenge and encourage children to pick up the right habits.
It has never been more critical to encourage the right oral health habits to prevent dental caries. Feeding and snacking habits have changed because of urbanisation. People are feeding and snacking more frequently and often on the go. This increases the risk of plaque build-up and can be bad for your teeth by predisposing you to tooth decay.
If you feed regularly, chewing sugar-free gum after snacks and meals can help. The oral health care benefits of chewing sugar-free gum are today recognised and supported by regulatory authorities, an increasing number of governments, FDI World Dental Federation and nearly 20 national dental associations worldwide.
In addition to taking action to reduce tooth decay, we must also not overlook the elephant in the room, which is the fact that oral diseases disproportionately affect the poor. Treatment for oral health conditions is expensive and usually not part of universal health coverage.
At the Kenya Dental Association, we have built a tradition over the past decade of regularly reaching out to underserved communities in rural Kenya and informal urban settlements. We do this in partnership with partners such as Unilever and Mars Wrigley, through their Wrigley Oral Healthcare Programme and the Mars Wrigley Foundation.
We recently concluded a week-long mobile dental clinic in Lamu to mark World Oral Health Day. We screened more than 560 people (adults and children) in the regions of Mpeketoni, Shela and Faza, conducting procedures on 337 of them. We had two medical officers all through as well as pharmaceutical technologists to help dispense drugs.
Unsurprisingly, tooth decay was the most prevalent disease. We need to address this silent pandemic in oral care. We also need to invest in projects that can improve access to oral healthcare for low-income populations.
We must also advocate increased government support to the Oral Health Unit at the Ministry of Health to ensure it is well equipped to tackle the burden of oral disease. This includes exploring ways to introduce and expand public insurance cover for oral health.
President, Kenya Dental Association
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