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NDA advocates regular oral check up to prevent tooth decay, gum diseases, others

By Paul Adunwoke
24 March 2022   |   2:34 am
The Nigerian Dental Association (NDA) has advocated regular oral medical check ups at least twice a year to ensure natural defenses and good dental care among Nigerians.

[FILES] Healthy tooth. | Image: USC

The Nigerian Dental Association (NDA) has advocated regular oral medical check ups at least twice a year to ensure natural defenses and good dental care among Nigerians.

The association noted that Nigerians should brush twice, one in the morning one in the night, before going to bed to keep bacteria under control. However, without proper oral hygiene, bacteria can reach levels that might lead to oral infections, such as tooth decay and gum diseases.

NDA made this known at a press conference organised by Pepsodent, a subsidiary of Unilever Nigeria PLC, held at the company’s premises, Ikeja, Lagos, to celebrate World Oral Health Day 2022.

NDA, President, Dr. Kolawole Obagbemiro, said that good oral health translates to good health overall, because oral problems such as cavities or gum diseases can impair one’s ability to eat and speak properly as they cause pain and bad breath.

He explained that many people are not aware that poor oral health can have a profound negative affect on other parts of the body and result to health conditions such as heart problems, diabetes mellitus, pregnancy issues and chronic inflammation, such as arthritis among others.

The Senior Brand Manager, Pepsodent, Tolulope Okuneye, disclosed that the tooth paste has reached out to over five million school children across the country over the years by educating them on the importance of brushing their tooth twice a day and creating 21-day routine for them to develop a habit of brushing first thing in the morning and the last thing at night.

Okuneye noted that by 2024, Pepsodent is targeting to reach out to over 10 million school children across the country, adding that free toothpastes and toothbrushes were given to the children to help facilitate their brushing habits.

She said: “The brand would be executing an online digital activation through Instagram live videos tagged. ‘Ask your dentists’, which would be launched on March 20, 2022 to provide consumers direct access to a dentists to ask their dental related questions.”

She said that the brand is in partnership with the Nigerian Dental Association in order to have mobile dental clinics in specific areas in the neighborhood across the country to provide free dental services to consumers and make toothpastes available to them to drive consistent brushing of teeth, twice daily, and the campaign would be launched on March 25, 2022.

She said: “As part of our brand mission to unleash the power of healthy smiles by eradicating oral diseases for everyone during this World Oral Health Day, we would be reaching out to about one million school children through our school programme and several other people through the mobile dental clinic and the ‘ask your dentist’ online digital activation. We aim to help millions of people to take control of their oral health and avoid severe pain; costly and complicated treatments, and ultimately tooth loss through these services, which run yearly. Our World Oral Health Day 2022 campaign titled ‘don’t wait until it’s too late, talk to a dentist’ aims to help create awareness to ensure people understand the importance of acting early, from the moment a problem arises.

“Underscoring oral health is very important because tooth loss has serious consequences affecting general health and wellbeing, quality of life, economic and social opportunities.

“Toothache and other oral health diseases have been the highest case of school absenteeism among school children. Furthermore, adults who have lost teeth have higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and at risk of having malnutrition, they can also experience sleep deficiency. They may be discriminated against, or suffer a loss of self-confidence and anxiety.

“Access to dentists as soon as problem arises is the most effective way to avoid severe dental health outcome like tooth loss.”

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