October is Oral Health Month and this year the focus is on prevention.
That is because only 6% of Belizeans visit a dentist regularly. The other 94%
visit when there is a problem – a toothache or gum disease. But that has
to change since tooth and gum disease may be Belize’s silent epidemic.
And that is why the ministry of health is doing it from the ground up. Their
target is primary school aged children who were hosted at the launch or oral
health month at the Bliss Center. Senior dental surgeon with the Ministry of
Health Carl Meggs says prevention is way better and cheaper than cure when it
comes to dental ailments.
Dr. Carl Meggs,
“Old habits are hard top break, to begin with, and we find that targeting
the younger children, at least if we can get it from this point, at this very
early age, it is a habit that can be developed to take into adulthood. Oral
health actually is very integral to general health because most major disease
that we can find today has a starting point directly from oral cavity. So we
try to educate children very early age that not only will it prevent tooth decay
and gum disease but also it will be beneficial in the longer run for their general
health.”
Keith Swift,
In terms of dental health problems, how prevalent are those in Belize?
Dr. Carl Meggs,
“Well it is very very prevalent. In fact to answer that question I
have to give you a statistic that is pretty much sad. First of all dental is
not a priority in life. We have approximately 6% of this population who visit
the dentist annually. The trend in Belize, and I wouldn’t want to only
single out Belize, but the trend overall in Latin America and the Caribbean
is you visit the dentist when you’re in pain. Now the Ministry of Health
is pushing a program of preventative.
The mindset and the whole thing with these program we have now today is
education and awareness and once we capture that to the population, that through
education and showing them where prevention is the way to go, I guess once we
get that within the school system and get a generation of children growing up
with that mentality then it will be more cost effective at the end of the day.”
The students who attended this morning’s launch each got a tube
of Colgate toothpaste and a toothbrush courtesy Grace Kennedy Belize Limited.
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