Capiz dentists push dental health campaign
Roxas City -- A motorcade of a giant cartoon-tooth creation highlighted the opening activities of the Philippine Dental Association (PDA) - Capiz Chapter last February 7 here to create awareness and better understanding about dental care in view of the dental health month celebration.
The caricature was also featured in a "parade of tooth" during the regional opening ceremonies for the celebration last Feb. 5 at Iloilo City participated in by chapter provinces in Western Visayas.
President Gloria Arroyo declared the month of February of every year as National Dental Health Month in a Proclamation No. 599 in 2004 to give the PDA an opportunity to reach out more people especially in the countryside to be more conscious about the value of good oral/dental health.
The proclamation superseded a customary weekly observation as mandated in the 1951 directive to become a month-long celebration starting last year.
Tooth decay has been considered as the most prominent disease affecting Filipinos as discovered in the Department of Health survey released in 1998 which revealed that 96 of every one hundred Filipinos are afflicted by dental caries.
PDA - Capiz Chapter President Dra. Sharon Acepcion said other activities lined up for the celebration include various civic actions like free dental consultation and services, badminton tournament among dentists, and dental health consciousness information campaign, among others.
The month-long celebration with the theme "Ngiping alaga mula sa pagkabata, Sandata natin sa pagtanda" will be observed by an estimated 90 dentists provincewide.
Meanwhile, PDA-Capiz Chapter hosted a two-day Regional Dental Convention last January at the Gerry Roxas Foundation here graced by the PDA national officers. The convention was attended by dentists from Aklan, Antique, Iloilo, Negros Occidental and host chapter of Capiz. (PIA/A.Lumaque)