Take oral health serious, dentist advises public

                             

Dr Olufunke Agbekele of the Dental Department at Crystal line Hospital in Okinni area of Agunbelewo, Osogbo in Osun, has advised the public to always take good care of their oral health regularly . She told the News Agency of Nigeria( NAN) that through that , they would guide against tooth decay, and mouth odour. The dentist said that some studies had shown that during the early stages of development in life, people, especially children, used to loose what is called the “milk teeth” to grow the “permanent teeth”. Agbekele said that parents should monitor their children while growing up as they could develop some habits that might affect their dental formation in general. She said that most of them might indulge in : “suck their thumbs” , ” lip sucking” and ” tongue thrusting ” leading to improper care for their teeth. She said that children through improper care and frequent contacts with sugary things also could develop decayed tooth, and this might not give proper positioning to the permanent teeth when they start growing. Agbekele said if lip sucking , tongue thrusting and thumb sucking go beyond the age of five when children begin to grow permanent teeth , dental problems could occur among them depending on the intensity,duration and frequency of such unhealthy habits She said, “The teeth can be pushed out of alignment causing them to protrude and create an overbite. “This can lead to the upper and lower jaw misaligning and the roof of the mouth can be malformed, hence, it may cause difficulty in pronunciation of words.” She said that dental deformity could cause low self esteem in some teenagers and adults, and the option of corrective surgery is usually on the high side. She, however, advised parents to discourage most of these habits in their children so that they would not disfigure their looks and loose their self esteem in future. She canvassed proper cleaning of the teeth to prevent decays and tooth abscess in both adults and children. She said that brushing of the teeth twice daily should be encouraged for the people to get rid of any bacteria-forming plaque on the teeth and gums. Agbekele also advised the public to always visit their dentists frequently for regular scaling and polishing of their teeth.