A tooth fairy lost in the salt era
“Unfortunately, your interview score is below the cutoff mark for the MBBS program,” said the university administrator. This occurred after travelling on a 7hrs flight from Nigeria to the UAE to attend the interview for shortlisted candidates into the medicine (MBBS) program. I felt my dreams were shattered, I was broken, and I thought to myself where do I start? Where did I go wrong? I had sleepless nights preparing for this test and interview, I felt I was competent and confident that I would pass. Although I was given the option to go into the dentistry or pharmacy program by the board of examiners. Was that really what I wanted? I asked myself, my eyes filled with heavy tears and disappointment. I don’t see myself restoring cavities and perceiving bad breath as a living nor do I want to dispense drugs and sell cosmetics at the pharmacy store I told myself. Can I possibly impact lives and promote health and well-being as a dentist or pharmacist, only physicians could do that! well, so I thought as a fresh graduate from high school. After a series of guidance and counselling sessions with my parents and tutors, I was enlightened about both programs and decided to accept the dentistry offers. On beginning the program, I saw more to it than a layman would and my preconceptions about dentistry and other related fields were dispelled.
I then realized I was rather less informed and generally build facts on people’s beliefs or perceptions of what dentists do. During my clinical years at the university, I came across Asian patients from the Philippines who wore dentures as teenagers. I asked how they lost their teeth at such a young age, and to my surprise, I was told that it was a cultural practice in some ethnic groups to extract all their teeth because they believed natural teeth were prone to caries, whereas artificial teeth do not develop cavities, and all they needed to do was clean them and have them replaced if they were worn out. For a brief moment, I was perplexed; how could someone think that way? However, I thought it was unfair of me to judge them in that manner because they, like me, undoubtedly lacked dental understanding at the outset of my career. I took it upon myself to educate and counsel the few I encountered, and I feel I had an impact on their life, as most wished they could turn the clock back in time to make amends.
The biggest eye-opener was During the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria, families had died of excessive salt consumption due to viral misconception that the Ebola virus was cured by having a salt bath or drinking the salt solution. I attempted a casual survey within my region to see if people believe in the myth, and to my great surprise, a large number of people were already involved in the salt practice. The media was already raising awareness about this issue, but due to the wide rural and urban disparities, I discovered that most rural homes did not have electricity to watch television or access to telecommunication to receive prompts.
I then had to use my voice to speak during medical outreach programs to reach a large audience, again I was dissatisfied with the engagement process which led me to research public health, and currently, in my third year of the program, I have gained robust knowledge I put into practice as a clinician and I hope to tackle global public health concerns through early intervention, health equity, and health promotion.
