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Advise parents to purchase eBooks ‘teaching oral disease prevention’

Garth D Pettit

Director, 4 Your Smile 2 Shine Pty Ltd, 125 Montacute Road, Unit 64 ,Campbelltown, S.A. 5074, Australia

E-mail : aa

DOI: 10.15761/DOCR.1000223

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Hello, my name is Dr Garth Pettit. Recently I placed this online advertisement in a Dental Journal:

“Dentists, therapists and hygienists, advising the O.H.I. “Paint Your Mouth”, not “Brush Your Teeth”, will substantially benefit you, your practice and your patients as will advising parents to buy the oral health education eBooks & Videos at https://mouthwise-oral-health-care.myshopify.com These are parent and school teacher friendly, kids love them and kids will better understand the oral hygiene advice you give them! Children are also entitled to that comprehensive oral health care education. This series of eBooks, all authored by Dr Garth Pettit. including "Teaching Oral Disease Prevention. 1 of 12 to 12 of 12, addresses that problem. Some, but not yet all, eBooks have been created as videos. “Paint Your Mouth” also, as people get older, greatly reduces risks of heart attacks, strokes Alzheimer's disease, dementia and diabetes.”

Discussion

In this article, “Advise Parents to Purchase eBooks Teaching Oral Disease Prevention”, I discuss roles that dental professionals, dentists, therapists and hygienists, occupy in children’s oral health. These professionals have wonderfully equipped, up-to-date, surgeries for examining patient’s mouths and for providing any dental treatment that maybe required. They also offer the oral health care advice called “Brush Your Teeth”. They do not offer oral health care education because they do not have time to educate and it is not THEIR responsibility. Oral health care education is the responsibility of children’s parents and/or children’s school teachers, but preferably both because parents can back-up what kids learn from their ideal teachers, who are their school teachers.

Where do parents and teachers find the teaching resources they need to give their children an oral health care education? There are numerous teaching resources from which they can choose. Some created by individuals, some created by dental-related organisations, some created by toothpaste manufacturers and some created by tooth brush manufacturers and many others too numerous to mention here. But each, and every one of them have one thing in common. Their dental health care advice is “Brush Your Teeth”. Whereas my oral health care advice is “Paint Your Mouth”. A Google Searching for “Advise Parents to Purchase eBooks ‘Teaching Oral Disease Prevention” lists my eBooks 1 to 7 of 34.3 million searches. “Let me explain why I advise “Paint Your Mouth, not “Brush Your Teeth”.

First, some background information

Prior to year 3,500 B.C. teeth enamel surfaces were cleaned by rubbing them with lumps of charcoal or wetting a finger, dipping it into sand, then rubbing on teeth or even by wetting a finger and dipping it into gritty soil to clean teeth enamel surfaces [1].

In 3,500 B.C. a non-dentist Babylonian created a Chew Stick for cleaning tooth enamel surfaces. It was a simple implement created by breaking a twig from a tree, plucking off the foliage then chewing one end to fray it. He advised using the frayed end to clean teeth enamel surfaces. Although it does not access all teeth enamel surfaces the Chew Stick continues to be used, in 2017, in many countries around the world [2].

In 1498, a Chinese Emperor patented the first bristle made tooth brush. He embedded bristles, taken from a Siberian hog’s neck, at right angle into either a bone or bamboo handles. His advice to clean enamel surfaces was “brush your teeth with a toothbrush”. It was a vast improvement on the Chew Stick because bristles at right angle to handles could access more enamel surfaces on teeth and do so more efficiently [3].

Next a French dentist, Dr Julian Botot, in 1755, invented the first known tooth paste. Dr Botot also invented the first known mouth wash for his patient King Louis XV of France. Mouth wash was intended to reach all surfaces in the mouth. Tooth paste was recommended only for cleaning teeth surfaces. It had not occurred to him that the ingredients in his tooth paste could also clean the surfaces of every surface in a mouth. The fact that he thought in terms of mouth for mouth wash was the first great step forward in ‘oral’ oral healthcare. But I do not advise the instruction Brush Your Teeth as I explain for the following reasons [4].

Subjecting “Brush Your Teeth” to S.W.O.T Analysis

I retired, aged 60, from dental practice, in 1991. I returned to dental practice in 1997 when my 3 years old granddaughter was diagnosed with mild tooth decay! I committed myself to this mission: Prevent Oral Diseases in Children”. Research, in 2002, caused me to subject the instruction “Brush Your Teeth” to a S.W.O.T. (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis. “Brush Your Teeth” was revealed to be a tooth hygiene instruction, not a mouth (oral) hygiene instruction. Why? Because there are seven surfaces inside a mouth that become covered with harmful plaque and bacteria after eating and or drinking; teeth, gums, tongue, roof, floor, lips and cheeks. My first mouth hygiene instruction was named “Treat Your Mouth”. Later I changed it to “Treat Your Whole Mouth”. Finally, in 2007, it became “Paint Your Mouth”. Why? Because kids loved it!

The instruction “Paint Your Mouth” cleans and removes all undesirable food, drink and other remnants from all seven mouth surfaces: teeth, gums, tongue, roof, floor, cheeks and lips. It then advises to thoroughly rinse with water to rid the mouth of all those undesirable food and drink remnants plus the multitude of bacteria that dwell naturally in the mouth. It then advises to repeat that procedure, with a lesser amount of mouth paste, not rinsing with water, just spitting out any excess to complete. That leaves the mouth with all seven surfaces covered with helpful plaque that will predictably reduce the incidence of tooth decay, gum diseases, bad breath and stained teeth.

In comparison the instruction “Brush Your Teeth” instructs to remove harmful plaque from teeth surfaces and from gum surfaces. Then it recommends spitting out the brushed off plaque. Brush Your Teeth is only a tooth and gum cleaning instruction. It not only does not rid the mouth of all harmful plaque removed from teeth and gum surfaces, but it also does not attempt to remove harmful plaque that covers the surfaces of tongue, roof of mouth, floor of mouth, inside cheek surfaces nor inside lip surfaces. Brush Your Teeth actually leaves the mouth with only clean teeth surfaces and clean gum surfaces. But only BRIEFLY! Because all surfaces inside the mouth, soon afterwards, become dirty again when saliva continuously drips into the mouth then with cheek, lip and tongue movements this dirt is spread back over the just-cleaned teeth and gum surfaces.

 Everyone who executes the instruction Paint Your Mouth will also predictably prevent succumbing to acute and chronic oral diseases later in life. Diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia and diabetes.

I appeal to dentists, dental therapists and dental hygienists to themselves try my oral hygiene instruction ‘Paint Your Mouth’. I will be surprised if you then do not recommend your patients to ‘Paint Your Mouth’. To give children their best-ever chance to prevent oral diseases, which is formal oral healthcare education, I appeal to dentists, dental therapists and dental hygienists to recommend this website http://mouthwise-oral-health-care.myshopify.com to their patients [5].

All oral health education eBooks and videos available at http://mouthwise-oral-health-care.myshopify.com are unique because they are based on the oral hygiene instruction “Paint Your Mouth” not on the tooth cleaning instruction “Brush Your Teeth”. All eBooks have been 5 star reviewed by two professional eBook reviewers, Diane Donovan, Mid-West Book Reviews and Cindy Wolfe Boynton, Foreword Reviews. They are child friendly, parent friendly and teacher friendly, interactive eBooks that make teaching a breeze. Kids will love the FREE downloadable graphics including the graphics of their ‘teachers’; GarGar The Dentist, Croc-o-Smile an expert on teeth, PadPaw an expert on gums, Booksie Owl an expert on tongues, Kook-a-Mum & Kooksie experts on roof of the mouth, Ruby Roo an expert on Floor of mouth, Grinny Squirrel & Ben Bilbie experts on cheeks and Minnie & Munchie Koalas who are experts on lips. Also FREE are FREE lesson stationary for their exercises and last but not least 10 FREE, beautiful “Certificates of Achievement” for correctly answering the lesson tests.

Their most important FREE downloadable graphics is the cover for an album, My GarGar The Dentist Activity Album in which kids can keep a record of all they learn. It’s something they will treasure, want to show off to everyone, and want to use unwittingly for their revision.

I appeal to Tooth Brush and Tooth Paste manufacturers to help remove ambiguities by renaming their products Mouth Brush and Mouth Paste to promote the concept “Paint Your Mouth”.

I support the manufacturers of mouth wash products. No reason to change your product name, it’s already precise! There are many circumstances where mouth wash is the more convenient to use, sometimes even the only product to use, to keep a mouth healthy: at home, hospitalised, sick, bed-confined or incapacitated. Also at work after morning, midday and afternoon breaks when mouth brush and mouth paste or washbasin facilities are not available.

I especially appeal to Dentists, Dental therapists and Dental Hygienists to advise parents and children to “Paint Your Mouth”, not to “Brush Your Teeth”. Also to recommend parents and children’s school teachers to give children an oral healthcare education. One eBook, costing just US$49,99, titled Teaching Oral Disease Prevention. 1 thru 12, would, at home &/or in a classroom, help children to keep their mouths healthy, preventing oral diseases and to prevent many common adult diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia and diabetes.

I appeal to Ministers for Education to introduce oral healthcare education into schools. Schools have fully qualified teachers teaching children a range of subjects using whiteboards and computers. My eBooks, and videos, were created to be both teacher friendly and parent friendly. Being interactive eBooks makes them easy for teaching because teachers can download numerous, FREE, downloadable graphics such as the cover for a ‘My GarGar The Dentist Activity Album’ in which children can keep a record of their activities as they are learning about their mouths and keeping it health. Please test it. One eBook, costing just US$49,99, titled Teaching Oral Disease Prevention. 1 thru 12 downloaded to one computer can be shared by all teachers.

Quote: “Who is a dentist? A dentist is a physician whose practice is in the field of dentistry. This involves the mouth, teeth, gums and related areas. Some studies have shown that diseases relating to teeth and gums can be indicative or indicators of some other health issues. The health of the mouth is essential to the overall general health of the body and a dentist will encourage and assist their patients in maintaining a healthy mouth by regular cleaning and check-ups. Some dentists specialize in endodontics, orthodontics, periodontics or paediatrics” [6].

 

Finally, “American Dental Associations all recommend that children be seen by a dentist at or near their first birthday, which leaves a lot of time for problems to develop. And pediatricians are often asked about dental health, particularly about fluoride and brushing” [7].

 

References

  1. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep12150
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teeth_cleaning_twig
  3. http://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/emperor-of-china-patents-toothbrush/
  4. https://www.saison.com.au/botot-the-world-s-first-toothpaste.html
  5. http://mouthwise-oral-health-care.myshopify.com
  6. https://www.sokanu.com/careers/dentist/
  7. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/preventing-tooth-decay-in-kids-fluoride-and-the-role-of-non-dentist-health-care-providers/

Editorial Information

Editor-in-Chief

Shigeru Watanabe
Meikai University

Article Type

Short Communication

Publication history

Received: May 20, 2017
Accepted: May 31, 2017
Published: June 05, 2017

Copyright

©2017 Pettit GD. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation

Pettit GD (2017) Advise parents to purchase ebooks ‘teaching oral disease prevention’. Dent Oral Craniofac Res 3: DOI: 10.15761/DOCR.1000223.

Corresponding author

Garth D Pettit B.D.S., G.D.M.

Director, 4 Your Smile 2 Shine Pty Ltd, 125 Montacute Road, Unit 64 ,Campbelltown, S.A. 5074, Australia.

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