The Dental Services Unit of the Department of Health and Wellness has launched the first ever Dental Comic Strip competition.

The competition is launched as an oral health promotion campaign targeting young adults between the ages 18-35. It is meant to encourage young people to take charge of their lives in a healthy and positive way, and to have health as a priority as they plan for their future and begin to navigate through life.

With oral health as a priority, young people need to pay a more attention to their oral hygiene and how changes in their breath can impact not only on their lives but on persons around them. They need to know that poor oral hygiene can be a symptom of disease or can set the stage for undesirous outcomes especially in the social interactions.

The objective of the competition is to increase public knowledge on halitosis, inform on what it means to have halitosis, how it can it be prevented, and what it can be a sign of.

The competition will encourage the competitors to do their own research on halitosis, come up with a concept they think best encapsulates it, highlight the associated impact and how it can be prevented or treated; and capture it all in a comic strip! It’s a way for participants to create their own vision of such an important issue in a fun and exciting way.

An exhibition of the submitted posters will follow, for public viewing. The Dental Health Services Unit will also conduct a survey to ascertain the impact this health promotion activity will have on the knowledge, attitude and practices of public.