Brush your teeth!

I wonder how many of you remember squatting with your primary school friends by a little drain, with a red mug and toothbrush in your hands, diligently following the teacher’s instructions, flick-flick-flicking our teeth and carefully spitting into the drain, dental mission accomplished! (Image credit: National Archives of Singapore)

The Singapore dental health campaign began in 1969. Dental hygiene standards then were poor, and it is reported (courtesy of the National Library Board archives) that half the population did not know how to brush their teeth properly and half of schoolchildren didn’t even own a toothbrush. So toothbrushing was introduced as part of the curriculum from Primary 1-3, and each child was provided with a toothbrush and mug.

Thousands of teachers were trained, and more than 1.5 million toothbrushes were provided. Singapore was the first country in the region to carry out toothbrushing instruction on such a massive scale. This was quite a commitment – remember, in 1969, Singapore’s GDP per capita was only $813 (Macrotrends), and we were only 4 years old as a nation.

By 1988, it was reported in the Straits Times that dental health was no longer a serious problem, with fillings in children decreasing from an average of 6 (in 1970) to 2 (in 1988), which, incidentally, is precisely how many I have. Today, it’s 2023, and I can report that my children actually have none, which seems pretty incredible to me.

Somebody give that unnamed Ministry of Health officer that came up with the toothbrushing campaign, a big pat on the back. This simple investment in toothbrushes must have saved millions of Singaporeans, hundreds of millions of dollars in dental costs, and untold pain and suffering over the decades.

Even better, after a decade or two, they didn’t even need to keep giving out subsidised toothbrushes and mugs. They’d successfully trained the trainers – today, practically all of us, as dentally indoctrinated parents, are training our own children.

Why am I going on about toothbrushing?

Well, we were back in Batam a couple of weeks ago with a mini medical team, including a dentist. There wasn’t a lot the team could actually do without equipment and readily available medicine, but it was still so good that the team showed love to the 80 or so students and parents who turned up. 

Medical access is something we take for granted here, complaining about polyclinic queues. But it’s incredibly deeply appreciated by our friends over there – not just for simple things like painkillers, skin ointments and de-worming, but just to have doctors and friends ask how they are. To know that they really matter to us.

One of the things we did was to demonstrate toothbrushing, led by our doctor/dentist friend. She couldn’t do extractions or fillings without equipment, but she, and even the rest of the non-dentally trained team could certainly teach the kids how to brush their teeth.

We provided toothbrushes and toothpaste and lined them up, just like we used to back in the day! We encouraged the teachers to incorporate regular toothbrushing into the school week, and a couple of days after we returned to Singapore, we got videos from them proudly showing the kids enthusiastically brushing away :D

Ten, twenty years from now, this small measure will pay a rich dividend, just like it did for us. Small things, compounded over time, make a huge impact. 

Back in 2019, when we were first partnering with the school, I wrote that “… with so little money, we were able to bless such a large number of people.  How can we turn away, knowing that just that little amount of time and money and resources can produce such an outsize impact both now and in the future?" (Link)

It really is as the Bible says – who dares the despise the day of small beginnings? (Zechariah 4:10)

From a small, rundown, leaky shophouse with patchy utilities in 2019, we now have a full size school with 10 classrooms, a hall, assembly area and playground, fully equipped toilets and electricity.

We were strangers – but now we recognise the teachers, children and parents the moment we step off our van. We learn, laugh, cry and pray together.

This month we were there with medical and dental help, and we trust it will start a little snowball that will grow as it rolls downhill. Next month, we’ll be back again, this time with MOE-trained volunteers to run some lessons – someday we’ll look back on this and see how it’s grown too.

We still have many great challenges ahead of us. The problems are complex, and often seem intractable. But if it were easy, who would be interested to add just another mundane thing to our already crowded lives of many obligations, big and small? 

No – it is a great challenge. And therefore WORTH adding to our lives.

Let’s make the few things in our hands multiply, so that much may accrue out of these small beginnings. No one really knows the name of the MOH officer who decided, back in 1969, to start the ball rolling for toothbrushing. But a man may do an immense deal of good, if he does not care who gets the credit for it (Father Strickland, 1863).

We may not be able to feed thousands. But Tim Keller once said, quite rightly:

“There are some needs only you can see. There are some hands only you can hold. There are some people only you can reach.”

Many years ago, someone started a campaign that saved all our teeth :D Now we can start to help someone else benefit from the same. 

As I just heard this weekend - we've been saved. Fantastic! But we're not saved just *from* pain and destruction, but *to* great purpose. 

Ping me if you want to join us on this journey to great purpose :)

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 3:20)