OYO State Chairman of the Nigerian Dental Association, Dr Adeola Akintola, says dental issues like missing teeth, gum disease, bad breath and tooth decay can negatively impact self-image, confidence and difficulty to chew, further impacting mental wellbeing.
Dr Akintola made the disclosure during an oral health awareness rally and commencement of a 2-day dental outreach to offer free treatment, oral hygiene counselling, free scaling and polishing, tooth extraction and free dentures for selected individuals at the Mapo Hall premises in Ibadan.
Akintola stated that dental issues like missing teeth or gum disease can negatively impact self-image and confidence, potentially leading to social withdrawal and anxiety, while poor oral health issues like bad breath or visible dental problems can make it difficult to engage in social interactions, further impacting mental well-being.
“If you are in pain, even if you have good news, you can smile because you don’t know at what point the pain will come back. If somebody has a mouth odour, the person will not be free among his colleagues.
“Tooth pain can limit the choices of food you can enjoy. Oral health is also linked to positive emotions and self-perception. The self-esteem of a child that has double teeth whose friends are body shaming at the end of the day might be affected.”
Dr Akintola urged Nigerians to stop self-medicating toothache with over-the-counter medications, warning that these medications, when applied to the tooth, end up burning up the gums and worsening the individuals’ condition aside from delaying the time to seek appropriate treatment at the dental centre.
“Those things are not recommended by doctors. They are not supposed to be used for anything in the mouth. They cause chemical burns in the mouth. People apply them all in the name of removing the aches. That the pain seems to have gone does not mean the actual problem has been tackled,” she added.
She dissuaded the use of herbal toothpastes, saying the benefit of fluoride in toothpaste to ensure strong and whiter teeth is lost because other chemical substances in these toothpastes prevent the easy transfer of their fluoride content to the teeth during cleaning.
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Mrs Fatimo Bilal, a dental therapist at Dental Centre Moniya, in her health talk at outreach, said hard bristle toothbrushes are not recommended for use to prevent damage to the teeth and the gums; rather, soft bristle toothbrushes are for children with milk teeth and medium bristles for others.
She said tooth scaling and polishing should be done twice a year for expert cleaning, particularly of the inside of the teeth, because not all dirt on the tooth can be removed by brushing.
Mr Bilal cautioned against the use of toothpicks to clean spaces between the teeth and recommended dental flossing to prevent the damage toothpicks cause both to the gums and the widening of spaces between the teeth.
President of the Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria, Oyo State branch, Dr Omowunmi Femi-Akinlosotu, said the outreach, in collaboration with Oyo State MWAN, was to ensure that oral health hygiene gets to the grassroots, especially those that cannot afford it.