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    Hear Dental Health Educational Programs

    Below is a selection of the Dental health related educational programs we currently have playing on air on the Yolngu Radio Service. Simply hit the 'Play Audio' button to play any track in a popup window.

    These files are in MP3 audio format and should play in your default Media Player when you click the Play Audio button. You may also download these files by right clicking on the Play Audio button and selecting "Save Target As" and selecting a download location.

    Dental Health programs  

    Dental health part one: Too Ashamed to Smile     8:54
    Dentist Denise talks with Richard and Maratja. This program is in Yolŋu Matha with English translations.  Maratja states that Yolŋu used to have very good teeth, but now it is very common for Yolŋu to have dental problems. Some people have no teeth left due to decay or have gum disease and bad infections. These problems are affecting young and old people. Some people are ashamed to smile or laugh or have photos taken. Yolŋu used to have good teeth; one reason for this is that they ate bush foods; now people are very confused about why their teeth are so bad. 
    Dental health part two: Sugar, Bacteria, Acid, Plaque 14:11
    Following on from the last program, this one asks ‘How do we get bad teeth?’ ‘Why is it getting worse now?’ Yolŋu are now eating more sugary foods and soft drinks (whereas before there was very little sugar in Yolŋu diet). A high sugar diet causes dental problems because the bacteria that live in our mouths eat the sugar, which helps them to reproduce very quickly. If we scrape the white stuff called ‘plaque’, off our teeth and look at it under a microscope we will see many bacteria. The plaque is all those bacteria plus their rubbish (byproducts).  It is white but can become yellow. Inside the plaque is an acidic byproduct that destroys the enamel on our teeth.

    Dental health part three: Bacteria And Tooth Decay 10:25
    The final part in the series: What is causing tooth disease? The bacteria in people's mouths. Bacteria are tiny organisms that we can only see with a microscope. There are many types of bacteria in everyone's mouths but only a few cause dental problems. They all have names. Streptococcus mutans and lactobacillis are the two that cause the most problems with teeth. (Streptococcus is the same one that can lead to Rheumatic Fever.) Bacteria reproduce by "mitosis" - this means the bacteria spreads out and then break in half to become two. This can happen it about half an hour. So if you have 1 million bacteria in your mouth, in half an hour it will be 2 million!