MAYOR Del R. De Guzman lauded the Marikina City Health Office for yet another award from the Department of Health – National Capital Regional Office (DoH-NCRO).
Marikina won the “Best Orally Fit Child (OFC)” award for having the highest percentage of preschool children without dental caries and with an effective oral health awareness program being implemented. “This recognition is presented to acknowledge the effort and hardwork of the local government unit in the implementation of the Department of Health’s Oral Health Program and effective promotion of oral health hygiene in their locality,” Undersecretary Teodoro Herbosa stated.
According to Usec. Herbosa, the OFC candidates of the 17 local government units (LGUs) were evaluated and validated by DOH-NCRO under two categories namely, virgin case or category 1, which means that a child must have clean and healthy teeth and gums without dental caries during the examination and rehabilitated case or category 2, where the child has previous dental caries already treated and other dental services were performed.
In recognition for the accomplishment, Marikina City, the frontrunner of the OFC Category II will receive P60,000.00 in support of their oral health program.
Preschool children, aged 6 years old and below, who were included in the competition were all enrolled in day care centers in Metro Manila under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). The implementation of the OFC program is in coordination with the Department of Education (DepEd), the 17 LGUs of Metro Manila and local health offices in the region.
Validation and re-evaluation of OFC candidates began on September 2013 and was completed on February 2014 covering all 17 LGUs in the region.
Herbosa reminded that community preventive measures such as the OFC program is effective in preventing most oral diseases. “We should also keep in mind that oral health is everybody’s concern and we can take actions as individuals, and take care of ourselves and those under our care, to prevent oral health diseases and maintain health. The primary prevention of many periodontal diseases and dental caries begins at home,” he added.
Dental carries are tooth decay and cavity while periodontal disease are gum diseases.
According to the 2011 National Monitoring and Evaluation Dental Survey (NMEDS), 87.4% of Filipinos suffer from dental caries while 48.3% have periodontal disease.
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