‘Batang May K’: Democratizing access to oral healthcare
FILIPINOS ARE said to be one of the happiest peoples of the world. We take things lightly and routinely flash our killer smiles at the slightest hint of cheer and fun. Sadly, the country has one of the world’s worst cases of oral health and it doesn’t sound right, does it?
Based on a study by the Department of Education in 2006, 97.1 percent of children 6 years old and below have tooth decay or early childhood caries. The result should be a cause for concern since it was found that oral health negligence could lead to cardiovascular-related diseases and might develop to malignant oral cancer.
To address this problem, Pepsodent-Unilever together with the Philippine Dental Association has stepped up its intensive oral health and personal hygiene campaign dubbed “Batang May K,” to cover more cities and municipalities in Batangas province where the project started.
Part of more than 30 oral health improvement projects under the “Live, Learn, Laugh” program taking place around the world, Batang May K is the localized program that seeks to improve young children’s oral health and overall readiness for school under a global partnership between Unilever and the FDI World Dental Federation.
Phase 2
Now on its second phase, Batang May K will soon be rolled out in a number of public daycare centers throughout Batangas. The program started off in 2007 as a general health program piloted in four municipalities. To date, it has benefited a total of 2,900 daycare pupils in 108 daycare centers in towns of Calaca, Padre Garcia, Malvar and San Pascual.
Phase 2, which will start this coming school year, will be expanded to include 11 more municipalities namely: Talisay, Mataas na Kahoy, Cuenca, Ibaan, Lipa, Nasugbu, Tingloy, Tuy, Bauan, Taal and San Nicolas, all in Batangas.
“Batang May K will not only encourage twice daily tooth brushing with a fluoride toothpaste, but will also educate children and caregivers about other vital healthy habits such as hand washing with soap, eating a nutritious diet, waste segregation and biannual deworming,” said Dr. Robert Tajonera, PDA president.
“We are taking advantage of this initiative so that in the next three years the whole province can serve as a model of implementation to the whole country. We plan to focus on the same activities but now in a larger scale and giving emphasis to the twice daily brushing with fluoride toothpaste,” Tajonera added. The “K” stands for karapatan (right) of a child to proper oral healthcare.
In an exclusive interview with the Inquirer last week, Unilever Philippines chairman and CEO Fernando Fernandez revealed that based on recent surveys it was found that only 10 percent of Filipinos can afford services of private dentists owing to high costs of dental services.
Fernandez said Unilever is allotting “a significant investment” to cover as many Filipino children as possible and a global target of 1 billion children around the world. Batangas province was particularly chosen as pilot site because of the “proactive support” of Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto, Fernandez said.
Project implementation
Under “Batang May K,” an essential healthcare program is implemented in select government daycare centers. EHCP consists of behavior-changing interventions such as handwashing with soap, tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste, bi-annual deworming, proper diet and nutrition and waste segregation. This bundling of health activities is a way of including oral health into a general health program, mainly for better acceptance of interventions in oral health, which is generally not given much priority.
For his part, Tajonera said: “On all malignancies that can affect the human body, at least 3 percent befall the mouth which, in many cases, severely affect people’s daily functions.”
Unilever shares the same belief as Tajonera’s. Dr. Analia Mendez, global personal healthcare and home hygiene partnership director of Unilever, said: “Twice daily brushing is an important habit for a healthy mouth. Learning healthy habits as young children makes them part of a routine and by teaching children healthy habits in preschool, we are giving them the gift of a healthier start in life.”
