Smile for Oral Health Month, the Government of Nunavut says

This shows how bad some young children’s teeth can look before surgery. (FILE PHOTO)

During April, Oral Health Month, the Government of Nunavut’s health department wants people in Nunavut to celebrate the territory’s “bright smiles.”

From April 11 to April 22, you can visit your community oral health coordinator or dental therapist, have a photo taken of your smile, and enter a draw to win “an exciting prize.”

“All photos will be shared on bulletin boards at your local dental clinic or community health centre to celebrate Nunavut’s bright smiles,” the GN said in an April 11 public service announcement.

But here’s the problem: Not many in Nunavut can display the bright smiles that the GN is seeking.

That’s because by age 40, one in five Inuit have no teeth and many youth suffer from decayed and missing teeth.

The Canadian Dental Association says oral health of Inuit requires “serious attention.”

“In spite of earlier government commitments to improvements, the condition of Aboriginal oral health more closely resembles that of Third World residents than of other Canadians,” the association said in a statement, released earlier this year.

The Canadian Dental Association wants to see “fundamental change” to Health Canada’s Non-Insured Health Benefits Program.

The association says the program, which covers costs for dental treatment for Inuit, is under-funded, with medical transportation consuming a disproportionate amount of the budget, instead of treatment for Inuit oral health.

For example, to keep costs down, second molars are no longer eligible for crown therapy under the NIHB, leaving no other funded option but extraction.

As well, protective mouth-guards for sports were recently de-listed from coverage.

“These short-sighted, counter-intuitive decisions do not meet the standards of care expected by Canadians,” the association said.

Tooth decay remains “the number one chronic disease” among Inuit, said the most recent survey on the state of oral health in Inuit communities.

Tooth decay, a chronic, but preventable disease, is two to three times worse among Inuit than among average Canadians, the Inuit Oral Health Survey found.

There are 20 times more extractions among young Inuit and six times more extractions for adult Inuit than among southern Canadians.

All this teeth-pulling has a consequence: By age 40, one in five Inuit have no teeth. Many others have fewer than the full number of 28 teeth.

Among Inuit adults who do keep their teeth, about four in 10 had fewer than 21 teeth.

Inuit children’s teeth are also in bad shape. Decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT) rate for Inuit children ranges from 8.22 to 9.59, according to a 2013 Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami report on oral health among Inuit.

By comparison, non-Aboriginal 13-year-olds from Ontario have a DMFT rate of 1.7.

A three-year $6.9 million Nunavut Oral Health Pilot Project announced in 2013 is supposed to pay for for more dentists, dental therapists and dental hygienists to promote good oral health and prevent dental illness in children up to seven years of age.