|
MouthWise Oral HealthCare School-on-the-Web
Q:
Could you please explain your two statements: 1. “Brush Your Teeth” causes oral diseases? It’s a fact! 2. “Brush Your Teeth” will contribute to oral disease sooner or later.
A:
Firstly, I am referring to the oral hygiene instruction, (OHI), not to the physical action. It is the oral hygiene instruction itself which is the problem I have sought to solve and have solved with a new oral hygiene instruction for a child’s smile to shine for life. 50 years in general dental practices has been my problem solving ground. Secondly, I stress that an OHI is only one subject in a child’s oral health education. Oral health education is all about a smile.
Fact 1: Children, from a very early age, are brainwashed with the OHI “Brush Your Teeth”. That’s all they will do! They brush their teeth. They develop gum problems and breath problems and not much smile to shine.
Fact 2: They may then be instructed to “Brush Your Teeth”. “And don’t forget your gums” . Two OHI’s! But they still have the breath problems and not much smile to shine.
Fact 3: They may then be instructed to “Brush Your Teeth”, “And don’t forget your gums”. “And brush your tongue as well”. Three OHI’s! Now, finally, no tooth decay, no gum disease and no bad breath. Hopefully they’ll continue to do all 3. But invariably they’ll be reminded of just one, “Brush Your Teeth”.
Fact 4: These children become adults. As adults the incidence of gum problems, breath problems increases and not much smile to shine. Along with the occasional decayed tooth. They are then reminded to “Brush Your Teeth”, “And don’t forget your gums”. “And brush your tongue as well”. But very often they’ll slip back to just one, “Brush Your Teeth”.
Fact 5: “Brush Your Teeth” is not a truly oral hygiene instruction. It is a dental instruction. Teeth only!
Fact 6: “Treat Your Mouth” is a truly OHI. It instructs a child, an adult, whoever, to ‘ treat your mouth; your teeth, your gums and your tongue’. One instruction. Three structures in the mouth.
Fact 7: Since the dim, dark old ages, the OHI "Brush Your Teeth" has passed from generation to generation, century after century. With what result? Children are currently suffering from, in some reports even increasingly suffering, oral diseases. The U.S. Surgeon General described it as “ …the silent epidemic.” Children have never been told all about a smile.
Fact 8: “Treat Your Mouth” is a new oral hygiene instruction for a child’s smile to shine! The new oral hygiene instruction is one complete OHI. The new oral hygiene instruction is easy for a child to remember! It’s with them for life! The new oral hygiene instruction are in the lyrics of the song “4 Your Smile 2 Shine”.They'll never forget it! With this oral hygiene instruction children are armed with just one of the oral healthcare basics all about a smile.
Q: At what age should a parent start teaching children about oral health?
A: There is no specific age but the earlier the better makes good sense. They have a right to start learning all about a smile from a very tender age.
Very young children like to imitate their parents. Give them a mouth treater, some mouth paste and encourage them to treat their teeth, their gums and their tongue soon after every meal. It will be good for the parents as well!
Q: What do you mean by ‘Treat Your Mouth’?
A: Think of it like treating a wound. It is a two-step process. First you clean the wound to get rid of germs and debris. Then you apply a chemical substance to prevent infection and or promote healing. You may sometimes also take a third step to protect the wound with a covering
The first step in ‘Treat Your Mouth’ is getting rid of unwanted plaque, food debris, drink debris and bacteria from the surfaces of teeth, gums and tongue. To do this bristles are used to sweep paste over the surfaces until they are clean. Then the mouth has to be rinsed with water to rid the mouth of these undesirables. But out goes the paste simultaneously! It can not be avoided!
The purpose of the second step in ‘Treat Your Mouth’ is to cover the surface of teeth, gums and tongue with the very desirable chemicals in the paste. To achieve this the bristles are used to apply the highly desirable chemicals in the paste to the surfaces of teeth, gums and tongue. To be certain they are left there, instead of rinsing with water, the foamy paste is swished around the mouth, in between the teeth and the excess foam is spat out.
Look at the claims made on paste packaging. Only after ‘Treat Your Mouth’ will those claims be achieved.
Q: What is Plaque?
A: Plaque is a film which forms in the mouth from oral secretions and oral bacteria and adheres to the surface of teeth, of gums and the top of a tongue. Newly formed it is thin, invisible to the naked eye and beneficial to surfaces beneath it. If it is not removed regularly it becomes thicker and eventually, visible. Left undisturbed for long enough it calcifies, hardens and becomes scale usually attached to the surface of a tooth. It can however, in extreme cases of neglect, cover gum surfaces.
The normally found bacteria in the mouth will invade it in non-threatening, small numbers. Chemicals from foods, drinks and toothpastes likewise will invade it. Problems arise when, given time and left undisturbed, plaque constituents become high in carbohydrates and simultaneously high in bacteria numbers, a situation which creates high concentrations of acids. Acids attack the surface of enamel causing tooth decay. A high bacteria count is a threat to gum tissue and causes gingivitis or eventually pyorrhoea.
Q: What is wrong with the oral hygiene instruction “Brush Your Teeth”?
A: For any educator to achieve their goal every teaching resource they need must be of the highest standard, including any set of instructions. 'Brush Your Teeth' is only one sixth of a complete oral hygiene instruction. One sixth of an instruction all about a smile.
1. Parents and teachers, be assured, YOU are the ideal oral healthcare educators.
2. You have an IDEAL GOAL. To give children their very best possible oral healthcare education, one which will help these children to become self-motivated to prevent all easily preventable oral diseases. Tooth decay, gum disease and bad breath!
3. You have the most comprehensive, up-to-date oral healthcare education program for children in “The MouthWise Oral HealthCare School-on-the-Web”.
4. The instruction “Brush Your Teeth” was NOT the ideal oral hygiene instruction to include in that education program so a new set of instructions was devised to address two major flaws in that instruction. Firstly, “Brush…” tells a child to only ‘Brush’, in the sense of getting rid of unwanted debris. Secondly, “….Your Teeth” tells a child to concentrate their efforts towards only one thing in their mouths, “… Teeth”. Let me elaborate.
“Brush…” tells a child to only ‘Brush’ to get rid of unwanted debris. Fine, but it is equally important to leave a protective coating of ‘tooth paste’ ingredients, over the surfaces of teeth and gums. Rinsing out the mouth with water following ‘brushing’ rids the mouth of all rubbish and ‘tooth paste’ ingredients, leaving all oral surfaces vulnerable to disease. Therefore the ‘Brush’ must also be used again after rinsing, to apply a protective coating of ‘tooth paste’ ingredients.
“…Teeth” suggests to a child, just that, “…Teeth”! It is a tooth hygiene instruction. It is not a complete oral hygiene instruction! It assumes and it requires, at some later date, giving them additional instructions concerning their gums and their tongue. Even if this does happen, the child now has three sets of instructions to follow, one each for teeth, gums and tongue. But these additional instructions are not always given. I have never yet heard of or read of or seen in any media any oral hygiene instruction excepting ‘Brush Your Teeth’. It is contributing to oral disease, not always preventing it. The overall result of this out-dated tooth hygiene instruction is the continuing incidence tooth decay in children and of gum disease and bad breath as they grow older. Most very young children are spared from gum disease only because of their good general health and the exceedingly high blood supply to their gums at that age. But that changes as children become older, grow into teen-age and later become adults and then exhibit an increasing higher incidence of gum disease and bad breath. You may well have observed this phenomenon for yourself.
The MouthWise Oral HealthCare School-on-the-Web is the only oral healthcare education program for children to address these very simple, logical, common sense concepts. “Treat Your Mouth” is a far superior oral hygiene instruction than “Brush Your Teeth”.
Q: Why do you call ‘Tooth Paste’ Mouth Paste’ ?
A: ‘Tooth Paste’ is logically interpreted by a very young child to mean just that; ‘a paste for brushing your tooth ’. It invariably is associated with the hygiene instruction ‘Brush Your Teeth’. From a very early age most children are being given very poor ORAL hygiene advice. Even parents who may also have, over time, been given additional oral hygiene instructions such as ‘brush your gums’ and brush your tongue’ will usually from the very beginning instruct a child to ‘Brush Your Teeth’. The inevitable result for many individuals in later years is the undesirable incidence of tooth decay, gum disease and bad breath all of which are easily preventable diseases.
The superior oral hygiene instruction is ‘Treat your Mouth’. It implies using a paste, a ‘Mouth Paste’, to brush your whole mouth, your teeth, your gums and your tongue, once to get rid of undesirable food and drink ingredients and a second time to coat the teeth, gums and tongue with the desirable ingredients in the ‘ mouth paste’.
Q: Why do you call a tooth brush a ‘Mouth Treater’ ?
A: The same, logical argument applies to ‘Tooth Brush’ and ‘Mouth Treater’ as was used for ‘Tooth Paste’ versus ‘Mouth Paste’. Please refer to that Q. & A. Why do you call ‘Tooth Paste’ Mouth Paste’ ?
From the very beginning a superior oral hygiene regime will be established by a child if 1) a child is given the superior oral hygiene instruction ‘Treat Your Mouth’ ( meaning teeth, gums and tongue ) and 2) instructed to use a ‘Mouth Paste’ and a ‘Mouth Treater’ and 3) instructed to at first get rid of undesirable food and drink ingredients and then 4) instructed to coat the teeth, gums and tongue with the desirable ingredients in the ‘ mouth paste’. The first seeds of oral disease prevention have been planted in that child’s mind. When the child is older a comprehensive oral healthcare education which includes the instruction ‘Treat Your Mouth’ and which self-motivates the child to prevent oral disease will more certainly help that child to enjoy a lifetime of oral health.
Q: What are ‘STIX’ ? in the ‘Visits to GarGar The Dentist’ school books ?
A: The term ‘STIX’ was created to represent another creation, an easily drawn SYMBOL for CHEMICAL ELEMENTS. Chemical elements are found in food ingredients and drink ingredients and mouth paste ingredients and in the mouth. They were created to help children learn very complex but extremely important oral healthcare subjects. That they are young is every reason why this information should be made suitable for them to understand. ‘STIX’, ‘Y’, ‘ZED’ is much more fun for children to say than ‘chemical elements’, ‘simple chemical compounds’ and ‘complex chemical compounds’. As for the symbols, they have even more fun drawing them and can imagine them covering the surfaces of teeth, gums and tongue. But most importantly, they are being helped at a very early age to prevent oral disease.
Q: What are ‘Y’ in the ‘Visits to GarGar The Dentist’ school books ?
A: The term ‘Y’ was created to represent another creation, an easily drawn SYMBOL for SIMPLE CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS. Simple chemical compounds are found in food ingredients and drink ingredients and mouth paste ingredients and in the mouth. They were created to help children learn very complex but extremely important oral healthcare subjects. That they are young is every reason why information should be made suitable for them to understand. ‘STIX’, ‘Y’, ‘ZED’ is much more fun for children to say than ‘chemical elements’, ‘simple chemical compounds’ and ‘complex chemical compounds’. As for the symbols, they have even more fun drawing them and can imagine them covering the surfaces of teeth, gums and tongue. But most importantly, they are being helped at a very early age to prevent oral disease.
Q: What are ‘ZED’ in the ‘Visits to GarGar The Dentist’ school books ?
A: The term ‘Y’ was created to represent another creation, an easily drawn SYMBOL for COMPLEX CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS. Complex chemical compounds are found in food ingredients and drink ingredients and mouth paste ingredients and in the mouth. They were created to help children learn very complex but extremely important oral healthcare subjects. That they are young is every reason why information should be made suitable for them to understand. ‘STIX’, ‘Y’, ‘ZED’ is much more fun for children to say than ‘chemical elements’, ‘simple chemical compounds’ and ‘complex chemical compounds’. As for the symbols, they have even more fun drawing them and can imagine them covering the surfaces of teeth, gums and tongue. But most importantly, they are being helped at a very early age to prevent oral disease.
Q: Why do you think parents and teachers make ideal oral healthcare educators
A: They are with children daily, or at the minimum regularly and their interest in children is un-compromised.
Children are entitled to and indeed have a right to an oral healthcare education which begins when they have their very first baby tooth and are able to hold a spoon with which they put food into their mouths. If a child can hold a spoon the child can also hold a mouthtreater. That is the time they should start to learn oral hygiene.
Parents are responsible for their oral healthcare education from this point of time to at least the time when the last second permanent molar has erupted. Parents will need to seek advice from dental professionals but the latter,not being with children on a daily or regular basis, are not ideal oral healthcare educators. They are ideal monitors. For school aged children school teachers, because of their professional training and regular attendance with children, also fit the role of ideal oral healthcare educators.
Q: What are the desirable ingredients in tooth pastes you write about in your school books? What do they do?
A: Firstly let me use the term ‘mouth paste’ to describe what has been commonly known as tooth paste. Mouth paste is a far more accurate description to give a child if one of our aims in this oral healthcare education program is to get them from the very beginning to care for every important structure in their mouths not just their teeth. Besides teeth the mouth has gums and a tongue, all requiring the same attention as teeth. Explain to children that if, when eating a meal, a knife and a fork and a spoon are used, then each of them needs to be cleaned. When eating or drinking teeth, gums and tongue get dirty. They all need to be treated.
The ingredient list is different for every mouth paste on the market, even within brands. It is not possible to list all ingredients in all mouth pastes here. But the essential ingredients in good mouth pastes are:
1) A detergent agent which makes the paste foam, and together with the bristles, breaks up plaque.
2) A mild abrasive agent which also helps to remove plaque and stains.
3) A binding agent which binds all ingredients together to prevent them from separating.
4) A moisturising agent to keep the paste moist.
5) A flavouring agent to enhance paste selection .
6) A sweetening agent to counteract undesirable flavours of other ingredients.
7) A preservative agent to keep the paste bacteria free.
8) Water to maintain the paste in a useable form.
9) An agent containing fluoride. Fluoride is essential in the prevention of decay and plays an active role in the repair of decay.
10) An anti-bacterial agent to destroy bacteria and the build-up of plaque. It is essential in the prevention of gum disease and bad breath.
Examples of these agents are:
1) Sodium lauryl sulfate
2) Aluminium hydroxide, calcium phosphate, silica, calcium carbonate
3) Synthetic celluloses
4) Glycerine, propelene glycol
5) Spearmint, peppermint
6) Saccharine
7) Methyl paraben, benzoates
8) Water
9) Sodium fluoride, stannous fluoride
10) Triclosan
When the mouth is treated the first time as in 'Treat Your Mouth' and then rinsed out with water, all of these agents, together with the rubbish, will have been removed from the surfaces of teeth, gums and tongue. The second treatment, followed by swishing, not rinsing, is necessary to leave behind, particularly the agents 9 and 10 above.
Q: What is the purpose of the terms “ STIX, Y, ZED ” for the ingredients listed on packaging? Why not use the ingredient names on the packaging?
A: To help children to understand what they must understand.
To deal with explanations ‘ too-complicated-for-children’ the stork brings babies. Father Christmas comes down the chimney. The Easter Bunny hides Easter Eggs. The Tooth Fairy leaves a reward for teeth. “ STIX, Y, ZED ” is a simple explanation for the complicated chemical names in ingredient lists.
Marketing slogans are extremely effective in getting messages across. ‘Slip. Slop. Slap.’ Is one such slogan. “ STIX, Y, ZED ” is another.
An adult’s imagination has become adversely affected by an unbelievable number of negatives over a long period of time. The words ‘can’t’, impossible’, ‘ridiculous’, X ‘too hard’, etc. create barriers to almost anything new or different. It takes time and/or acceptance by others for an adult to embrace new concepts. Not so a child’s imagination.
A child’s imagination is in FULL flight! NO BARRIERS! UNTIL, the inhibition process begins! I have, in classrooms, witnessed children, after just a brief and concentrated introduction to the concepts in these books, grasp the’ whole picture’ and make wonderful drawings of tooth decay, cavities, abscesses etc. They have drawn the concepts on paper!
When these children look at foods, drinks and mouth pastes, they are able to visualize the ingredients in them. They are able to visualize the ingredients on their teeth, gums and tongue, after eating and drinking. They are able to visualize these ingredients being rid from their mouths when the do their first ‘treat.
They are able to visualize the helpful ingredients in the mouth paste being left behind in their mouths, covering their teeth, their gums and their tongue. They can ’see’ what they MUST do to achieve their objectives. Our education goal is to self motivate children to PREVENT oral disease, to MAINTAIN oral health, to RETAIN their teeth white, to PRESERVE their smiles for life and to PRECLUDE expensive dentistry. “ STIX, Y, ZED ” is of invaluable help.
|
|
|