Help me answer these questions. Preventing dental caries in Jamaica. http://www.

Question

Help me answer these questions.

Preventing dental caries in Jamaica.

http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-18-preventing-dental-caries-jamaica

In order to evaluate the effects of salt fluoridation, an oral health survey was launched in 1995 to compare the caries scores with those observed in 1984. Thirty nine schools out of 800 were randomly selected and a total of 1113 children who were 6 to 15 years old were examined. Two dentists and 7 auxiliaries were calibrated as examiners and 9 dental assistants as recorders, in a 2-day training workshop. Data was collected according to the WHO Oral Health Surveys Manual.

Questions:

1. Are dental carries and dental health a global public health issue? Should dental health be a priority?

2. If you were health minister in Ethiopia, what proportion of your annual budget would you spend on dental health? What would you do?

3. What are the economic and social consequences of dental caries? Why might Jamaican children have particularly high prevalence of dental problems (before the salt fortification)?

4. Why was water fluoridation not the right approach in Jamaica, as it is in the United States? What would have been the consequences had the authorities chosen to fluoridate the water? Consider how improvements would have been seen only among children with access to publicly provided water—typically from wealthier families.

5. What are the arguments against community-level fortification interventions such as salt fluoridation? Do you agree or disagree with those arguments? What do you think it would take to convince those who believe that fluoridation of water or salt is a bad idea?

Explanation / Answer

1. Are dental carries and dental health a global public health issue? Should dental health be a priority?
Dental caries is a major oral health problem in most industrialized countries. It affects 60-90% of children and a majority of adults. It is also a most prevalent oral disease in Asian and Latin-American countries. Currently, the disease level is high in Americas but low in Africa due to a growing consumption of sugars and inadequate exposure to fluorides.
2. If you were health minister in Ethiopia, what proportion of your annual budget would you spend on dental health? What would you do?
About 3 million should be donated to the treatment of dentistry because, it is the one which brings smile to children.
3. What are the economic and social consequences of dental caries? Why might Jamaican children have particularly high prevalence of dental problems (before the salt fortification)?
  All the salt destined for human consumption are fluorinated since 1987. This is why Jamaican children have particularly high prevalence of dental problems.
4. Why was water fluoridation not the right approach in Jamaica, as it is in the United States? What would have been the consequences had the authorities chosen to fluoridate the water? Consider how improvements would have been seen only among children with access to publicly provided water—typically from wealthier families.
Water fluoridation is not the right approach only if the water supply system is regulated and the majority of inhabitants have access to the piped water system.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse H
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.