MouthWise Oral HealthCare School-on-the-Web

My name is Garth Pettit. During my undergraduate years at the University of Adelaide in South Australia I became fascinated with the perfect dentitions of Australian Aboriginal people who had maintained their natural diets. Their smiles were all about a smile. I was at the same time saddened by the detrimental affects on the mouths of those who succumbed to European diets. I graduated in December 1953. Subsequently, like most dentists, most of my time in private general practice was spent keeping pace with the demand for repairing oral disease. Too little time was available for oral health education. Neither were there in existence oral health manuals to recommend to parents. The make available something like The MouthWise Oral HealthCare Manual 2 had been at the back of my mind for many years.
 

Concern for Children’s Oral Health Education

I had several private practices in Australia and England until I retired in December 1992. My concern for oral health manuals for children’s oral health education got the better of me. I came out of retirement in February 1997 taking up a Government post, responsible for the oral health needs and education of children and communities in the remote areas of East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. It was during this period, working with teachers, parents and schools that I developed the education resource materials for this oral healthcare education program. I really desperately wanted to help children to avoid oral disease, to enjoy and benefit from oral health and to PRESERVE their white teeth and smiles for their lifetimes. I wanted to help children know all about a smile. The first of the oral health manuals, MouthWise Oral HealthCare Manual 2, was written there.

P.S. You may find the following two sentences of interest:
· Tooth decay, gum disease and bad breath are regularly quoted as being ‘easily preventable oral diseases’. Let me correct that. Tooth decay, gum disease and bad breath are easily ‘self preventable oral diseases’. They are and here you will find out ‘how’! But have you ever wondered why they are prevalent, even now?
· Likewise, plaque build up on teeth gums and tongue, stained teeth and enamel discolouration are regularly quoted as needing ‘visit your dentist regularly’ or ‘tooth whitening’. Let me correct that. Plaque build up on teeth gums and tongue, stained teeth and enamel discolouration are easily ‘self preventable oral diseases’. They are oral diseases. They are not normal. They are easily preventable and here you find out ‘how’! But have you ever wondered why you have not been told, ‘how’ easily?

 
My Home,Groote Eylandt, East Arnhem Land

Groote Eylandt, East Arnhem Land

One Particularly Important Observation

There is one particularly important observation I made (in the actual library pictured ) each year during this period that I wish to make you aware of and which caused me to re-write much of which I had already then written. Each year in each school the children in each class were subjected to a screening for decayed, missing and filled teeth etc. In one of the communities the two teachers responsible for 6 to 8 year old children had a ‘breakfast regime’ consisting of healthy food and drink followed by an instruction to ‘Brush Your Teeth and rinse and rinse your brush under the tap’.

As with Aboriginal language the children interpreted this instruction literally. So they were ‘brushing their teeth’, not rinsing their mouths (they were not told to do that), then ‘ rinsing and rinsing their brush under the tap’. The result was quite remarkable. Their incidence of arrested decay rose dramatically and their incidence of new dental decay fell to virtually zero. WHY? Because by not rinsing their mouths they were leaving toothpaste in their mouths and the ingredients in the toothpaste, especially the fluoride, was causing this dramatic, beneficial effect. Children in classes below them, with no breakfast regime, exhibited the usual high rates of decay. Children in classes above them, with no breakfast regime, exhibited dramatically increasing rates of decay. I pondered for weeks creating the new and superior oral hygiene instruction, ‘Treat Your Mouth’.

 
Screening in Remote School Library

The MouthWise™ Oral HealthCare School-on-the-Web

Being responsible for an area of very scattered, remote communities it soon became obvious that a web-based oral health education program would solve any difficulties of accessibility. And why not make it accessible to anyone, anywhere, any time? So was born the idea of “The MouthWise™ Oral HealthCare School-on-the-Web” and The MouthWise Oral HealthCare Manual 2.
 
Travelling, East Arnhem Land