Minister recognises Oral Health Month

The Minister of Health and Environment, The Hon. Trevor Moniz, JP, MP recently visited the Oral Health Section of the Department of Health at the Hamilton Health Centre.  February is Oral Health Month and, as such, Minister Moniz used the opportunity to congratulate the Department of Health for offering increased health screenings for students. 

Minister Moniz stated, “Ensuring optimal oral health during early childhood is extremely important. The new school entry screenings will provide increased opportunity for early tooth decay identification and intervention. Information gathered from the school screenings will help provide data regarding the scope of primary tooth decay and will support initiatives to reduce this expensive problem in the population.”   

Minister Moniz added, “In addition to working with primary school students, the Oral Health Section of the Department of Health is targeting older children, who have already lost their incisors, to participate in the very successful sealant programme. Those schools that had high sealant utilization had the lowest levels of decay among students at 15 years of age.  Therefore, if sealants are promoted and utilized in 12 year-old patients the level of decay for 15 year-olds can be expected to decrease.”

The eating habits of our youth have changed and the level of decay has increased slightly though still far below the levels seen when the fluoride programme began. Current decay levels are also still lower than the targeted maximum levels of the WHO for 2020.