The Toothbrush Fairy

Anyone who has traveled in developing countries has probably noticed the high instances of rotten and missing teeth, especially in young children; unfortunately, Honduras is no exception.  It is very common to see children with black spots on their teeth or teeth that look like they are broken off at the gums and black, especially in children from rural areas.  Many adults (as young as in their thirties)  also have partial bridges or full on dentures.  From the beginning of our time here we have been really affected by the dental issues here because they are 100% preventable!  Even the poorest family can afford a L.20 toothbrush – the issue seems to be lack of education.  So this week we delivered our monthly charla in La Fragosa with a focus on dental hygiene!

This week we were also hosting two PC Trainees during the H18 volunteer visit.  This time last year David and I traveled to La Esperanza for our own volunteer visit (read the post here).   The visit gives the PCTs a chance to see what volunteer life is really like and it is also their first time navigating bus travel alone!  We had one PCT from Health and one from Wat/San and it was a lot of fun taking them to see the La Fragosa project and of course putting them to work during the charla!

We began the charla with some basics about the importance of taking care of your teeth and a few tips for brushing.  In the March charla on potable water we discussed bacteria in the water that can make us sick, so this month we also touched on bacteria in our mouths that can ruin our teeth.  After the informational part we separated the class into four teams for a trivia game.  Side note, the teams came up with their own team names which were Olimpia, Motagua, Marathon, and Honduras (3 out of 4 are soccer teams).

PCT Damarise leading the game and PCT Adam keeping score

Some of the questions were a review from the potable water charla and the rest were about dental hygiene.  The bonus question was how many teeth do humans have and I was shocked that 2 teams answered correctly!! Even I didn’t know the correct answer (which we deemed 32 to include wisdom teeth).

 

Team Olimpia....pondering

After the game I got to play Toothbrush Fairy as we provided each student with a new toothbrush, thanks to our generous friends and family who donated brushes at Christmas.  The kids were very excited to get a new toothbrush and we immediately put them to use by doing a brushing demonstration.

 

Good lil brushers

We also had enough brushes to give one to the teacher and the members of the community health committee – adults need to brush too!  Overall we had a really fun time with the kids and our visiting PCTs!

 

Thanks for our toothbrushes!