Oral health is usually considered secondary to general health with fewer people seeking treatment for dental diseases like tooth decay and periodontal disorders (diseases of the gum and bone support tissues surrounding the teeth).
Dr. Geetha Nair, nodal officer for district dental health, has said that even though 26 units of the Health services provide cost-effective treatment, people are generally reluctant to make use of them. Periodontal diseases could affect the heart and in pregnant women, it could affect the unborn babies too, said Dr. Nair. She was speaking on the prevention and control of oral diseases on the occasion of World Oral Health Day recently.
The general public was uninformed about the importance of saving a bad tooth, she said. The concepts, techniques and practices of dentistry had changed over time, and now it was more focussed on saving a tooth, unlike earlier.
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Unhealthy food habits and poor oral hygiene were the primary causes of tooth decay, while the use of tobacco was a major cause of oral diseases, said Dr. Nair.
The government has included the National Oral Health Programme under the umbrella of Non-Communicable Disease control programme.
Dr. K. R. Vidya, deputy district medical officer, said that as part of the disease surveillance under the NCD programme in the district, all dental surgeons had been trained to screen for and identify oral cancers. While the use of tobacco in general had come down, particularly among adults, it had increased manifold among adolescents. One of the most important causes of oral problems had been identified as the use of tobacco and alcohol, she said.
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In an attempt to make oral health accessible to all, community health centres, taluk hospitals, district hospitals and general hospitals will be equipped with cancer screening biopsy laboratories.