Orlando Monteiro da Silva

Live.Learn.Laugh is being implemented in 29 countries in one of four formats, selected according to local needs. There are currently two projects underway in Greece, both targeting pre-school children.

Prevention is at the heart of both projects: “Twice daily brushing with a fluoride toothpaste” to improve oral health.

Part of my presentation in Athens, the 29 last January:

…”We are holding this workshop in Athens at a time of ‘austerity’. As a dental practitioner in Portugal, I, like my colleagues in Ireland, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, and others am acutely aware of the impact of cutbacks in government spending on health services in general and, in particular, what is (wrongly) perceived as non-urgent or to-be-postponed care, for example oral health care.

In the face of this, the best option is: prevention. Much of what is termed ‘prevention’ focuses on individual behaviour. For more than a year now, FDI, in cooperation with four other medical associations comprising physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists and nurses, has been targeting individual behaviour in the prevention of noncommunicable diseases”…