Deyalsingh: Rotten teeth harms sexual health

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh yesterday pleaded for more dentists saying rotten teeth may lead to erectile dysfunction in men, in addition to heart attacks, stroke, dementia and even stunted growth. This was all due to mouth bacteria causing build-up on the walls of arteries, he explained.

He was in the Senate moving a motion whose effect is to locally recognise the qualifications of dental graduates from the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica. The motion, recently passed in the Lower House, will allow Mona graduates to work in TT, he said.

Deyalsingh bemoaned that at present TT’s public health sector has a mere 28 dentists, and each of these serves a whopping 35,800 patients. “We need 67 people (extra dentists) to fill those vacancies,” he said.

He said some 425 dentists are in private practice where a ratio exists of one dentist per 3,212 people. Further Deyalsingh lamented that countryside residents suffer a lack of dentists who find it more profitable to serve urban areas. Deyalsingh listed objections by the TT Dental Council to approving Mona dental qualifications, but said these graduates are recognised by a Caribbean accreditation body, CAMHP, which in fact rated the Mona facility higher than the UWI facility at St Augustine.

“There’s no rationale to have them come down here (TT) to do a second exam.” The Dental Council does not accredit. Saying oral hygiene is not just about having a nice smile, he said, “Dental disease is probably the number one NCD (non communicable disease) in the world. Children especially with poor oral health suffer from poor growth, because they can’t chew, they can’t masticate, they can’t get the nutrients out.”

“People with poor oral hygiene pre-dispose themselves to heart attacks,” the minister said. He said dementia can arise when blood vessels to the brain get blocked.

“Those same bacteria that cause in your coronary arteries also cause build-up and blockage in the arteries that feed the penis. I see Senator Mahabir cringing in fear. So there’s a very strong correlation that (poor oral health) and erectile dysfunction.”