Oral Hygiene -- Teeth Stories

Children born after Malaysia tend to have better dental health because of the Primary School Dental Care programme, especially in Sarawak. Trainee teachers and permanent teachers spend time every morning to guide the pupils in their oral care, every day. 

"Time for brushing your teeth!!" All my children benefitted from the programme. Occasionally their tooth brushes got stolen, sometimes even their cups. This was part of student life, always LOST but never FOUND.

In fact many Sarawakians born before the formation of Malaysia started off badly in oral hygiene.

The first local Dental Officer who was posted to Miri was the then Dr. Sulaiman Daud who would go on to be a politician in 1966!! (He graduated from Otago, NZ) Many local born dentists only went away for their dental degrees after 1963.

In the 1950's in the longhouses children did not know what a tooth brush was. A friend told me, that when he wanted to clean his teeth, he would go out to the garden, cut a piece of sugar cane and chew on it. So sugar cane was his first tooth brush. He cannot remember when he bought his first tooth brush. It must have been when he went to school at AGE 9!! But today, he has a perfect set of teeth.

It may be a cultural shock for many dentists from different racial backgrounds, like Indian or Chinese, or European to meet 40 something Sarawakian patients with bad teeth. They have to bear in mind that when these patients come to see them, they usually come with more than just tooth ache. They may also be suffering from mental anguish of their poor oral hygiene when young, their poverty, etc.

A dentist may open more than one wound so to speak!!

I also know a student who told me, very shyly one day, that when she was in boarding school in the ulu, she and her three sisters shared a tooth brush for a few months until their mother sold a few pieces of rubber to buy them slippers and tooth brushes each.

When I was a teenager with bad front teeth, I would close my lips whenever I saw my dentist Dr. Teh coming over to greet us in Church. That's my story. I was to get a set of denture from him after two of my teeth broke in a hockey game.

My aunt laughingly said, " Ah!! Your leh bian has cracked! " Meaning my wedding biscuit has cracked and I would be "sold off at a lesser bride price...." Indeed my bride price was only RM500.00.

My late paternal grandfather's favourite question in the later part of his life was, "My friend, do you still have teeth to chew meat?"

We have 32 permanent teeth and perhaps every one of them would have a story. And those of my friends who have lost many of their teeth really have a lot of stories (dental) to tell.

I am grateful that we have wonderful dental nurses who have been taking good care of teeth of the new generation.

Do take care of your teeth.