Jiggle, jiggle, flick

Written by Bart Walters, DMD

None of the 30 or so members of Girls Time club in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe said a thing or raised a hand when I asked who uses toothpaste and floss or had been to a dentist. As a dentist and Westerner, I was struck by the silence.

Momentarily taken aback, I remembered my patient in Ottawa who hadn’t been to a dentist until he was 63, but because of consistent oral hygiene, his teeth and gums were perfect. That’s why all of you, I stressed, need to take good care of your teeth, brushing them morning and night.

I had agreed to make a teeth-brushing presentation to the club while on a 10-day trip to Zimbabwe organized by Global Sojourns, the boutique US-based travel company specializing in Africa with which a dear friend works.  The nonprofit arm of the company — Global Sojourns Giving Circle — supports girls clubs in Southern Africa, and supporters, and would-be supporters, sometimes come through to meet the girls and their mentor “aunties.”

The clubs help girls stay in school, build self esteem, and look beyond early marriage and motherhood in a traditionally patriarchal society. The visits are aimed at opening a wider world to teens in a country recovering from failed economic policies, political corruption and Africa’s high rate of HIV/AIDS.  As a dentist, I hope I left the girls convinced about the importance of brushing their teeth and thoughts of a career possibility. As a Canadian, I left with a new sense of gratitude and resourcefulness.

I’d packed scores of toothbrushes for area club members supported by GSGC — a new Oral B for each. But questions Girls Time girls shyly asked made it apparent that more is needed.

Q: Is it OK to share a toothbrush?

A:  If you share a toothbrush, clean it with hot water in between each use.

Q: Is it OK to brush your teeth with ashes?

A: If you don’t have toothpaste, you can use a little salt or ashes, I said, thinking of my patients who use more natural products, such as activated charcoal, and one of our guides who said people in

Zimbabwe use ash from a particular tree as toothpaste. Put a little in the palm of your hand, wet your brush, and tap the brush in the salt or ashes, I said.

The questions were practical to the girls, but poignant to me. If families — which here can mean any combination of relatives, not necessarily a nuclear family — cannot afford toothbrushes for each member, how could they afford toothpaste and check-ups?

The curriculum at the girls’ school includes health classes, so talking about proper oral hygiene fit neatly into the required classwork. I tried to build on the girls’ basic teeth-brushing knowledge. My brushing method, I volunteered, is jiggle, jiggle, flick. Brush laterally to loosen the plaque and bacteria, then flick them off with a twist of your wrist. Don’t forget the back teeth. Jiggle, jiggle, flick. Don’t forget the inside of your teeth. Jiggle, jiggle, flick. Don’t forget to brush your tongue. Here’s how not to gag in the process.

I left our Girls Time visit humbled. I left Zimbabwe awed by the landscapes and animals, but also by the resilience of the good-natured people. A toothbrush I made from a Blue Bush twig in one of the country’s national parks sits on my bathroom counter, just as a reminder.