NewsDetail
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is encouraging residents to maintain proper oral health hygiene in order to ensure a healthy ‘Smile for Life’, which is the theme for this year’s World Oral Health Day.
Observed yearly on 20 March, World Oral Health Day serves as an occasion to remind governments, national dental associations, schools, communities, and families of their important role in raising awareness of good oral hygiene and habits contributing to good oral health in order to ensure effective prevention of oral health diseases and disorders.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), oral health is a state of being free from chronic mouth and facial pain, oral and throat cancer, oral sores, birth defects such as cleft lip and palate, periodontal (gum) disease, tooth decay and tooth loss, and other diseases and disorders that affect the oral cavity. Risk factors for oral diseases include an unhealthy diet, tobacco use, excessive alcohol use, and poor oral hygiene and social determinants.
“Oral health is essential to general health and quality of life. It is a state of being free from mouth and facial diseases and disorders that limit an individual’s capacity in biting, chewing, smiling, speaking, and psychosocial wellbeing,” said Dr. Mohamed Sultan Al-Darwish, Prosthodontist and Dental Public Health expert at HMC and President of Qatar Dental Society.
According to Dr. Al-Darwish, the most common oral diseases in Qatar are dental cavities, periodontal (gum) disease, oral cancer, oral infectious diseases, trauma from injuries, and hereditary lesions. “In Qatar, dental caries or cavities are the leading oral health problems as our study conducted last year provided solid evidence about this,” said Dr. Al-Darwish.
He explained that the study conducted on a total of 2,113 students in 12 government and four private schools, divided equally between boys’ and girls’ schools, found that about 85% of students had some form of tooth decay.
To mark the World Oral Health Day and the GCC Oral Health Week this year, Dr. Al-Darwish has spearheaded a number of events for HMC, in conjunction with the Supreme Council of Health, Primary Health Care Corporation, Qatar Dental Society, College of the North Atlantic in Qatar’s Health Sciences School, and Dental Services at the Ministry of Interior.
Highlights of the events included oral health awareness activities across different schools and shopping malls in Qatar.
