ORAL HEALTH: Pepsodent takes Campaign to Students

In its bid to ensure that children have better oral health, Pepsodent toothpaste embarks on a mission to educate children on the efficacy of brushing day and night towards a better oral health with a twenty one day behavioural change programme pan Nigeria.

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 per cent 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, Bunmi Adeniba, 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.