Dental Experts speak out on festive season feasts
Drake Nyamugabwa
By Darlington Mabonga
As all homesteads are busy gearing up for the holy Christian festive season, dental experts have warned families not to feed on junk foods as they risk duffering from tooth decay.
The caution has been made by the president Uganda Dental Association [UDA] Dr.Mathew Rubona during an exclusive interview at his Sinai dental clinic at upscale Kisementi Kololo.
He cautioned that parents need to play a key role in determining what kind of foods and beverages their families should consume during the upcoming Christmas festive season to avoid ending up in hospital due to tooth related medical challenges.
‘We urge the parents as heads of families to ensure that they do not expose their children to junk processed foods and drinks which contain preservatives as they risk exposing the victims to tooth decay which incident might end up pushing some into hospital’ he observed.
‘As dental experts we are responsible for repair of teeth and bones of the mouth systems and once poor feeding of biscuits, cakes, sugarly coated foods and ice cream and chocolate among others is applied, it could lead to instant infection affecting the jaw and spreading to the neck, chest, lungs and worse still kidney infections that can effectively lead to hospital admission and death at worst’ cautioned.
He urged the citizens to consume largely African dietetic organic foods and drinks which are fresh and free of preservatives for their own good health.
Turning to the sector policy regulatory framework, he expressed deep concern that the country still has a small number of professional dentists numbering to a paltry 400 dental surgeons who cannot effectively cover the over 45 million population of the country yet citizens continue consuming plenty of useless and harmful foods.
He called on the government to work with stakeholders to ensure that they great sensitization campaign that target at sensitizing the country about the need to brush twice a day
