This year's theme for Oral Health Month is Healthy Habits for Healthy Smiles.
The New Zealand Dental Association says “good oral health is vital to general health”.
They've started the “Adopt a School” initiative, which encourages dentists to support a local school to become a water and/or low-fat plain milk only school.
Good oral health can be maintained by keeping a diet rich in nutritional foods, brushing morning and night, flossing daily, and scheduling regular dental check-ups to monitor your oral health – not just when problems occur.
Currently, only 1 in 10 schools in New Zealand have a water only policy in place and as a result, children’s oral health may be suffering. In 2015, 29,000 children had teeth removed due to dental caries, abscess or gum disease.
CEO of New Zealand Dental Association, Doctor David Crum says, “Sugary drinks are a leading cause of dental decay.” Recently, the Ministries of Education and Health joined forces to encourage schools to adopt a water and milk only policy.
While the Association was really glad to see the two Ministries taking leadership on this issue, we encourage our members to make use of this opportunity to help improve the oral health of our children by supporting a local school to become water-only. There are other healthy drink options such as water and low fat plain milk and we hope schools will be more willing to go sugary drink free."
So far 100 NZDA dentists have come forward to support a local school. As a consequence, thousands of school children will enjoy the benefit of better health,” says Crum.
Colgate has committed to donate a large quantity of toothbrushes and toothpaste, which will be distributed pro-rata to every participating dentist who will then forward them on to their adopted school.
