A health professional inspecting the teeth of a school boy
The Dental Surgeon at Tarkwa Municipal Hospital in the Western Region has expressed concern at the rate at which sweets and sugary drinks are causing dental decay among children.
Dr. Victor Paintsil has, therefore, suggested that the sale of all sugary drinks and sweets should be banned in schools to tackle tooth decay which affects children.
“If I had my way, we will place a ban on the sale of sweets on school compounds to protect children against dental related diseases.
“The children should rather be encouraged to eat fruits like oranges and bananas. Some fruits are seasonal, and so whenever they are available, the children should eat plenty of those fruits,” he pointed out.
Dr. Paintsil was speaking in an interview with journalists during a sensitisation programme for school children on oral health.
The event, which was organised by Gold Fields Ghana Foundation in collaboration with Pepsodent Ghana, was to mark this year’s World Oral Day celebration, which falls today.
It is on the theme, “A Happy Mouth is a Happy Mind”.
School children from Nana Amoakwa Model School, Damang Roman Catholic and Damang Municipal Assembly Basic Schools attended the programme.
He mentioned that oral health is a key indicator of overall health and quality of life, and stressed the need for all to have access to quality dental care.
He also bemoaned the scarcity of oral health services in remote areas, making it difficult for the residents to have access to dental health services.
As part of efforts to help bridge oral health service gap in remote areas, Dr. Paintsil suggested that a dental facility could be constructed in remote communities.
“Then a duty roster can be prepared so that dentists from the urban areas can attend to patients in remote communities on rotational basis,” he added.
Project Coordinator, Gold Fields Ghana Foundation, Ayishetu Mohammed, explained that the foundation got to know that there were lot of referral cases of dental-related diseases from the Damang area, hence the need to choose the community for the programme.
She said the school children were educated on oral hygiene and taught how to brush their teeth and protect them from cavity, and were taken through dental screening.
“The children were also given oral kits, Pepsodent-branded raincoats and mathematical sets,” she said.
Oral Care Brand Manager of Unilever, Glenn Abraham-Ampomah, stressed that Pepsodent is on a mission to prioritise oral health for all Ghanaians.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Damang