This is borne out of the need to reduce the impact of dental cavities as available data revealed that almost 100 per cent of adults globally suffer from dental cavities and 60-90% of school children have cavities even as toothache is the number one reason for absenteeism in school worldwide.
Speaking at the launch of Pepsodent
Oral Health Schools’ Program in Lagos, David Okeme, Brand Building Director,
Unilever Nigeria, said that the 21 days behavioural change campaign aims to
prevent the causes of ill oral health that affect children’s ability to learn.
He said that this is part of
Unilever’s global oral care social missions agenda to improve the oral health
of 100 million people by 2020 by convincing them to brush day and night to stay
healthy and happy and live a more enjoyable and fulfilled life.
He said, “In partnership with the
Nigerian Dental Association, Universal Basic Education Board and the Federal
Ministry of Health, Pepsodent is committed to improving the oral health of 10
million children in Nigeria by 2020 through the Brush Day & Night schools’
programme, and one million school children will be reached directly in 2015.
“We believe kids can change the
world by adopting healthy oral habits and they can convince their parents to do
same,” he said.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Bode
Ijarogbe, President Nigerian Dental Association, said children are more vulnerable
to dental cavities because they consume more of sweetened food
“Children are the ones that have
flair for sugar-based products like sweets, cakes, chewing gum, candies,
chocolates and even some of the syrups that are taken as medicine. But in this
case, we refer to fermentable sugar, that is, sugar that can be acted upon by
the bacterial in the mouth.
“Normally, everyone has bacterial
in the mouth and other parts of the body. But as regards formation of cavity,
the bacterial in the mouth only becomes very dangerous in the presence of
fermentable sugar-based diet. The sugar acts as diet for the bacterial and
produces a by-product of dilute acid which eventually results in cavity
formation, resulting in holes which gradually becomes larger and eventually
into tooth ache.
“And if this is not quickly
addressed, it results to severe pain which could lead to loss of manpower at
work for adults and school absenteeism for the child. The kids are the major
target in this programme because they have more cravings for sweet foods. And
when these children adopt the habit of a healthy oral lifestyle, they can then
spread the message to their parents.
Dr.Ijarogbe advised the public to
brush twice daily to reduce the incidence of cavities.
“We often advise that when people
brush, they should brush twice daily with fluoridated toothpaste. NDA wants to
be sure that when people brush, they brush with fluoridated toothpaste. As
such, we have subjected Pepsodent toothpaste to test before we endorsed it. And
we are rest assured that it contains fluoride. Flouride is an active ingredient
in toothpaste that helps to prevent tooth decay,” he said.
Commenting on the value proposition
of Pepsodent toothpaste, BunmiAdeniba, Category Manager, Oral Care, Unilever
Nigeria, said that the Pepsodent Tripple Protection is one big breakthrough
formulation that gives three benefits that one would ordinarily have gotten in
three different toothpastes.
“Pepsodent gives you three benefits
in one brush. The unique formulation of Pepsodent Triple
Protection guarantees
protection against cavities, stains and bad breath
and these are the most prevalent oral care needs in most homes,” she said.
11 comments:
Nice one,very good initiative.
Make dem do well.........
GUD ONE...TOMJERRYSWIT
Share books Giv children.... na toothpaste dem wan read........
a.k.a EDWIN CHINEDU AZUBUKO said..
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Thats nice though....
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***CURRENTLY IN JUPITER***
Good initiative.
Very necessary, thumbs up to them. Linda take note!
Humm.ok
Noted.
Pepsodent rocks, it cleans up the mouth completely
Ok I have nt used it. Very good then
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