Project “T.O.O.T.H. -A.I.C”: The Online Oral Treatments and Health Awareness Information Campaign (2014)

Charlie N. Atienza, DDM

A 2014 Project of The Rotary Club of Pasig West

There is absolutely no question about the need for providing accurate information about oral

health in the country today. The need to educate Filipinos about the importance of maintenance

oral health and prevention of oral and dental diseases should have long been a priority by the

Government. Promotion of oral health awareness in the Philippines has always presented

difficult challenges. The lack of a more organized partnership between the government

agencies and the private sector in this endeavour may be one of the main reasons why these

campaigns have not yet gained solid ground.

I. BACKGROUND

THE PRESENT SITUATION

A local sunstar newspaper article showed that “ACCORDING to the 1998 statistics shared by

the Department of Health, 94.2 percent of Filipinos have dental caries and 78 percent have gum

diseases.The result of the 2006 national oral health survey among the public school population

in the Philippines reports that prevalence of certain dental problems like caries and gum

diseases have rural-urban differentials. Its records reveal that cases of dental caries in Region

10 are 95 percent prevalent among the sampled 6-year-old respondents coming from the urban

places compared to the 100 percent or all of the sampled 6-year-old respondents from the rural

areas.” (http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/lifestyle/2013/09/24/about-dental-caries-and-periodontal-diseases-304981)

It is important to note the very small discrepancy between the rural and urban statistics and the

very high prevalence rates for both.

According to a more recent philstar publication, “Figures from the Department of Health (DOH)

show that 87.4 percent of Filipinos are suffering from tooth decay. The DOH said the Philippines

is far behind other countries in the Western Pacific region when it comes to oral health.”

(http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/01/11/1277538/87.4-pinoys-suffering-tooth-decay)

These statistics clearly indicate how unfavourable the situation of the country is today in terms

of oral health. This puts emphasis on the dire need to educate Filipinos on how to take care of

their teeth and gums in order to reduce the prevalence of such diseases and improve the quality

of their lives.

THE POWER OF THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA

In the past decades, traditional means of promoting oral health awareness have already been

employed and are still being actively implemented through government and private sector

initiatives. Such programs have targeted schools in order to teach school children about oral

health during their formative years. Others have targeted depressed urban communities as well

as far flung rural areas which present the greatest need for oral health education and treatment

through dental missions and civic actions.

According to the same Philstar Publiction stated earlier, “Vic Medina, University of the

Philippines’ College of Dentistry dean, said 70 percent of Filipinos do not visit their dentists

regularly. The other 10 percent go to private dental clinics and 20 percent visit government

clinics, he added. Medina said the Philippines is next only to Brunei as the worst in oral health.”

(http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/01/11/1277538/87.4-pinoys-suffering-tooth-decay)

These statistics present not only how bad the current situation is but may also be interpreted

positively as an opportunity. This means that a total of 30% of Filipinos, regardless of the level

of awareness, understand the need to visit a dentist for their treatment needs. Every dental

visit, whether regular or on a per need basis, is an opportunity to be educated about oral health

by the dentist. Although not clearly stated, it would be safe to assume that this percentage of

Filipinos, especially the 10% who can afford private dentists, belong to the higher social classes.

A part of the 20% may possibly belong to the lower-middle social classes. These are also the

Filipinos who may have obtained some form of dental health education.

Another fact that we can look into is the number of Filipinos who are now online and making use

of the internet for whatever purpose they have for doing so. Based on an article in

digitalfilipinoclub.com, with 5.5 million Internet users at the end of 2003, It is expected that this

will reach up to 41 million by 2014 basing it from trends where the number of Internet users

nearly double every 2 years. (http://www.digitalfilipinoclub.com/41m.htm)

It is a known fact that most of these Filipinos are actively using social media most especially

facebook.com. According to rappler.com’s article, “The latest data from SocialBakers shows

that almost one out of every 4 Filipinos has a Facebook account.” It further states that “…there

are 27,720,300 Facebook users in the Philippines. That’s about 27.75% of the population and

93.33% of the online population.”

Furthermore, the Philippines “Ranked 8th in the world among Facebook countries, about

1,226,960 Facebook users were added over the past 6 months. Breaking it down even further,

that’s about 204,493 Facebook users a month or 6,816 users added a day.”

Rappler also included in their article very interesting statistics and facts: “Of the Philippine

Facebook population, 39% of users are 18-24 years old and 24% are 25-34 years old.

Combined, this accounts for 63% of the total Facebook population. 52% of all Filipino Facebook

users are female which is consistent with the global profile of Facebook.”

(http://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/2609-5-filipinos-open-a-facebook-account-per-minute)

3 | P a g e

A simple analysis of all statistics presented, clearly shows how powerful the internet and social

media is and its influence to the majority of the Philippine Population. It may also be safe to

infer, that the majority of these internet users may be correlated with the 30% of the population

who understand the need to visit the dentist. Combining these two issues presents an

opportunity: To spread the dental health awareness through social media with the help and

support of Filipino internet users.

II. OBJECTIVES:

1. Provide Content in Filipino in blog or web site

Dental and Oral health awareness information is already abundant in the internet.

Popular and heavily funded websites already exist and are already being visited by

millions worldwide. What makes this project different is that it aims to provide dental and

oral health information in our native Filipino language. A website or a blog with text

content in Filipino will be developed aimed specifically at Filipino internet users. The

content should be easy to understand and must provide supporting images or graphics.

Dental professionals and students will be asked to provide the content in the blog site.

This may be voluntary, if possible, or a minimal fee or token will be given in return for

their efforts. An essay or content writing contest may also be setup in order to attract

writers to join the initiative.

2. Harness the power of the Social Media and the Millions of Online Filipino Users

(10,000 likes)

The blog will be linked to the most popular Social media sites such as Facebook, twitter,

instagram, google+, and the like. Linking the main blog site to social media will feature

and promote its content to targeted groups, thus increasing traffic potential to the site.

These social media pages will be setup automatically to post recent articles from the

blogsite through the use of apps like RSS graffiti. A target of at least “10,000 likes” and

“followers” will be set for its social media pages. The number of “likes” may translate to

the number persons that this project may have made an impact on.

3. Identify Social Media Groups

Filipino Social media groups in facebook with high volumes of members and visitors will

be identified and formally asked for support in spreading information about the Blog site.

This will accelerate the member invitations in order to reach the targeted number of

“likes”.

4. Setup Online Contests

Online contests are effective ways in order to generate more “likes” as well as a way of

promoting the content of the blog.

5. Sponsorships and Advertisements

The website/blog should also aim to attract sponsors and advertisers as a means of

funding the project.