Sunday, August 10, 2008

Barangay Bungi - Faces with no teeth!




I've watched some episode of Rated K in the Filipino channel last Sunday, and they featured different barangay's with KAKAIBA(different) themes. And the thing that hooked my attention is the Barangay Bungi in San Mateo, Bulacan wherein almost half of the population have teeth problem. Some got absence of front teeth, some got all rotten teeth and some got no teeth at all just like a new born baby in the face of old men/women, hehehehe. But despite of it all they we're still able to smile and laugh out loud. Hmmm, But what kind of faces do they got? How come it happen to them, and how come they can't do something about it?

Well, the Host of the program Korina Sanchez, answered all those questions. And the reasons are as follows:

  1. Poverty. They can't afford to have dental care. Even just to buy cheap toothbrush and toothpaste. Because they say, they will just save the money to buy something to eat other than buying that stuff.
  2. Poor Nutrition. Usually if you are poor you lack lot's of everything thats include proper nourishment that makes teeth and body poorer.

  3. Poor Hygiene. Laziness to brush teeth every after meal or even 3 times a day. Lot's of study shows that poor mouth hygiene makes teeth and gums weaker.
  4. Unhealthy Lifestyle. Smoking is the number one. Almost half of the respondents of the study do smoke cigarettes, that results to thickening of nicotine in the teeth that leads in harboring of bacteria causing tooth decay.

But with all those facts, still people tried to live with and make themselves happy in their very own special way even they lack much of things some other people have. Still, they portrayed smiley faces with no teeth...