World Oral Health Day 2015: Super Dentists Rap Kids to Brush Day and Night

In its commitment to build a cavity free Nigeria, through its brush day and night campaign, which is a global best practice to maintaining healthy oral profile, Pepsodent has unveiled Super Dentists, four dental cartoon characters, to drive the culture of a healthy oral lifestyle among children.

Bunmi Adeniba, Category Manager, Oral Care, Unilever Nigeria said Pepsodent hopes to reach 10 million children in Nigeria by 2020 to inculcate the habit of brushing twice daily and act as change agents to influencing their parents to do same.

She said that not only does tooth decay cause children pain and discomfort, but Pepsodent believes that it also risks having an adverse effect on children’s futures, causing them to miss school, potentially damaging their development at school and career prospects. 

Among other school programmes planned to educate children, the Super Dentists cartoon characters will be used to drive conversation among kids to learn the importance of brushing day and night.

Unveiling the Super Dentists to the media include: the Honourable Minister of Health, Dr.KhaliruAlhassan; President of the Nigerian Dental Association, Dr.OlabodeIjarogbe; Representative of the Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr.ModeleOsunkiyesi; stakeholders from the health sector and over 1,500 school children amongst others who graced the World Oral Health Day 2015 celebration on Friday, March 20^thwith the theme Smile For Life,organised by Pepsodent and NDAin Lagos.

Speaking at the event, organised by Pepsodent, in partnership with the Federal Government and the Nigerian Dental Association, in Lagos, the Honourable Minster of Health, Dr.KhaliruAlhassan said that the mouth is the gateway and mirror of the body adding that as such, Nigeria must take a paradigm shift from limiting dentistry to only the treatment of diseased teeth and care of the mouth.

He said that the Federal Ministry of Health is therefore pleased to collaborate with relevant stakeholders including Unilever Nigeria to integrate oral health into primary healthcare in Nigeria.

“I am particularly pleased with today’s event which showcases the dividends of stakeholders’ participation and has put Nigeria on the world map through the smile pledge taken by about 1500 kids to brush day and night aimed at a cavity free Nigeria,” he said.

Mr Robert deVreede, Vice President Marketing, Unilever Nigeria said that Unilever feels the responsibility being the number one oral care manufacturer in Nigeria. 

“We want to give something back to the Nigerian Public. We have set a global ambition to reach 100 million children by 2020 and 10 million of them is coming from Nigeria. In effect, the number we aiming to reach in Nigeria is the largest in Africa.

“We see the terrible picture if we don’t care for our mouth. So it is a step in the right direction that 1,500 children gathered today to pledge to brush day and night. We know that children have the future and can act as change agents to make their parents brush day and night. By the end of 2015, we would have reached one million children in Nigeria.

“And it’s our ambition to get 10 million people brushing day and night by 2020 in Nigeria. As one of the market leaders in oral health care products, our school programmes empower children and their parents with the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve good oral health for life, through education and behaviour change initiatives.

“The programme is tailored in such a way that children not only learn how to brush properly but also why it’s so important – information which they can then share with the rest of their family,” he said.

Dr.OlabodeIjarogbe, President, Nigerian Dental Association noted that the theme for this year ‘smile for life’ is aimed at wishing everybody a lifelong and healthy smile at all ages adding that the theme has a double meaning, ‘lifelong smile’ and ‘celebrating life.’

Dr.Ijarogbesaid the WOHD is important because 90 per cent of the world’s population will suffer from oral diseases in their lifetime, many of which can be avoided with increased governmental, health association and society and funding for prevention, detection and treatment programmes.