Original subtitles

Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults

Cinema and Theater department

TOOTHACHE

You can't take 8 from 5. So, I carry 1, making...

Fifteen!

Eight from 15 equals...

Seven!

Mohammad-Reza is in 2nd grade.

He's a good pupil.

In class, he pays attention.

At home, he does his homework well.

And he helps his mother with the housework.

His only bad habit doesn't seem important.

He forgets to brush his teeth.

Mohammad-Reza!

Teeth! Get up, son.

Usually, that's women's work.

But you have to keep busy.

You should buy sugar cubes.

It's much simpler.

There.

Take it.

Go on, son.

When he was Mohammad-Reza's age,

his father didn't brush his teeth regularly.

Neither did his grandfather.

That's why his grandfather lost his teeth very young.

So he really insisted

that his son, Mohammad-Reza's father, clean his teeth well.

In fact, when he was Mohammad-Reza's age,

his father cleaned them,

but not every night.

Today if you see,

he has sparkling white teeth that seem healthy.

It's not thanks to this irregular brushing.

On the contrary, neglecting to care for his teeth

caused him to lose them all very young

and replace them with dentures.

Dentures don't replace teeth satisfactorily.

They're often uncomfortable.

Which is no doubt why

his father is always telling Mohammad-Reza to brush his teeth.

Mohammad-Reza!

Teeth! Get up.

Even so, Mohammad-Reza doesn't brush his teeth every night.

And when he does, he does it carelessly.

On nights his father gets home late,

he goes to bed without cleaning his teeth.

And in the morning, since he's often late,

he always finds an excuse not to clean them.

That is no doubt why...

Madam, can I change places?

Shaterzadeh, sit down!

Parviz, concentrate.

Madam?

Do your work. Yes?

Can I change places?

Why?

Asgari has bad breath.

Okay.

Continue your work.

Sunday.

We give you grace, dear God,

and ask you to protect us.

Monday.

Tuesday.

"At lunch time, usually I went into the fields

to climb on the harvester.

At that time of day, the village children weren't with me.

Most of the students had come to this village

to take part in the harvest with the peasants."

Wednesday.

Thursday.

-Kaboli. -Present.

-Tava|ayi. -Present.

-Rahmati. -Present.

-Shaterzadeh. -Present.

-Shaterabbas. -Present.

-As|ani. -Present.

-Pirbodaghi. -Present.

-Movahed. -Present.

Asgari.

Mohammad-Rem Asgafl'?

Is he absent?

Mark him.

Forward a bit.

Round the neck.

You can lean.

Open wide.

We'll give you an anesthetic for the pain.

Doctor, why is he in pain?

He's got a cavity.

He hasn't respected the rules of dental hygiene.

How do dental caries happen?

Take off your hand.

When the patient doesn't respect this hygiene,

the consequence is that bacteria and food residue

attack the teeth and cause caries.

Now caries,

after the common cold,

are the disease that affect most human beings.

It first attacks the surface of the tooth, then goes through the enamel

to touch the dentine.

This provokes sensitivity to hot and cold on contact with food and drink.

If it progresses more,

it reaches the pulp, where the nerve is, causing toothache.

The patient then feels pain day and night and when absorbing any food.

What factors favor caries?

The occurrence of the caries

may depend on race, gender, heredity, and diet.

But brushing is still the main thing, and dental hygiene.

Cleaning your teeth is essential.

What can stop caries occurring?

I mean in terms of diet.

Foods are divided into two categories.

First, cleaning foods, like apples.

Hard food which, when being eaten,

circulate easily in the mouth

and enable any residue to be dislodged.

That's why we call them cleaning foods.

There exist, on the contrary, harmful foods, like cookies.

After chewing a cookie,

even seven brushings

do not enable your mouth to be cleaned perfectly.

It's a polluter for the mouth.

It sticks there,

transforms into acid and causes a cavity.

And gum?

Because of its sugar content,

gum is quickly transformed into acid and attacks the teeth.

When you consume a sugary product,

within four minutes,

it is transformed into acid and attacks the teeth.

That is where bacteria get their weapons

and attack the teeth to destroy them.

We must therefore strive to eliminate every sugary product from our mouth,

to stop bacteria feeding on them and attacking our teeth.

How can one prevent caries?

There are several ways to prevent caries,

or at least reduce the risks.

First, limit the consumption

of foods that harm dental health.

Especially sugar.

Next, strengthen the teeth's resistance to caries.

Today, you can find

substances in toothpaste, for example,

that help to reinforce teeth's resistance.

But as I said already,

brushing remains the main thing.

Good dental hygiene enables you to get rid of food residue

that can get stuck between teeth.

At what age should one start brushing?

There is no particular recommended age to start brushing.

As soon as children are capable of using a brush,

they should clean their teeth.

I should add

that until the children are old enough to brush,

it's up to the mother to look after

their dental hygiene.

Especially when using powdered milk in a bottle,

the child's mouth is constantly exposed to food residue

which causes caries.

It's a major source of problems for those children

who get bad caries later.

How many times a day to brush?

You should do it at least twice a day.

In the morning after breakfast

and at night before going to bed.

The principle is as follows:

In the morning, consuming sugary foods such as jam

or honey the child can take at breakfast

can cause caries.

The teeth should be washed to fight against the impact of sugar.

And at night,

teeth should be brushed before going to bed

to eliminate food residue stuck between teeth.

If the teeth are clean,

there will be no food for bacteria.

This diagram shows

the utility of brushing at different times of day.

To begin with, brushing before breakfast.

After this first meal, food residue gets stuck between teeth.

Then comes lunch.

Other foods and bacteria get added.

And finally dinner,

where yet more substances accumulate.

During the night the immobility of the jaw

and absence of salivation create ideal conditions

for the development of bacteria and caries.

Let's see what happens if, instead of the morning,

brushing is done at bedtime.

The residue of the food eaten throughout the day

are cleared from between the teeth, thanks to precise brushing.

At night when the jaw is immobile and there is no salivation,

the teeth benefit from a healthy environment.

Only towards the middle of the night

do a small amount of bacteria become active.

Finally, this diagram allows us to observe the effects

of brushing twice a day: after breakfast and at bedtime.

As we saw

certain bacteria become active during the night.

After breakfast, food residues are added.

The brushing that follows destroys all these bacteria

and cleans the teeth of them until lunch.

During this second meal,

but also during snacks eaten during the day,

foods slip between the teeth.

Brushing before going to bed gets rid of them all.

Comparing these three diagrams,

we see that brushing in the morning, before breakfast,

given that most residue and bacteria are absorbed during the day,

is the least useful.

Brushing at night

stops bacteria developing during the night

and is thus much more useful.

Finally, brushing twice a day,

after breakfast and at bedtime,

is the most beneficial for dental health.

How should one brush their teeth?

Brushing should start at the gums

and go down to the tip of teeth

and enable cleaning between the teeth.

I'll demonstrate it on a model.

Here is a dental model.

One of the most common ways of brushing

is front to back, like this.

As you can see,

the space between the teeth is not cleaned,

since the brush passes over.

But if we change the way of brushing

and clean the space between teeth, the cleaning is far more effective.

The most useful way consists of starting at the gum.

Once at the teeth, use a circular motion

to clean between the teeth,

then go down to the tip of the teeth.

We can see more clearly on the front teeth.

We go down towards the teeth via the circular motion,

and clean the space between the teeth

clearing away food residue,

the main cause of dental caries.

For the inside,

you should place the brush parallel to the teeth

and turn it to the side, as if sweeping,

and thus get rid of food residue

by pushing it to the top and leaving the teeth clean.

The top of the teeth should also be brushed.

So, from front to back to clean the surface.

One of the places food residue can stick

are the grooves on the tooth.

They should also be cleaned.

A frequent error consists

of only brushing the front side of the teeth

and thinking that's enough to make them clean.

But food residue sticks to the inside too that we forget to clean,

which causes caries.

The space between teeth should be well-cleaned in particular.

The exterior part can be cleaned

thanks to saliva that evacuates residue.

But on the inside, the upper teeth especially

collect residue and thus bacteria.

Should one change toothpaste often?

Today, most toothpastes contain fluoride.

There is no need to change.

One may change for a question of taste,

as long as it contains fluoride.

What is the effect of fluoride on teeth?

Fluoride strengthens the tooth's resistance to caries.

The risk of caries is reduced by 40 to 50%

by using toothpaste with fluoride.

What should one do in the absence of a toothbrush and toothpaste?

In general,

in the absence of a toothbrush,

you can use your finger.

Like in the old days, when cleaning the face,

the teeth can be cleaned with the help of a finger

to eliminate food residue.

And charcoal and salt?

I don't advise charcoal for reasons of hygiene.

Salt that is not abrasive and is diluted

is quite beneficial because it can reestablish the acid-base balance.

Charcoal may contain microbes and is therefore unsuitable.

If you examine the dental health status

of the children present here,

you will reach the following conclusion:

neglecting oral hygiene

causes caries and dental problems.

The pain felt leads them to the dentist's chair.

It's the case of the patient we have here.

But I think he's feeling better now, isn't he?

No more pain'? Well done, good boy.

Do you promise to brush your teeth? Good. Stand up.

This is a present for all those who don't brush their teeth

regularly and carefully.

Collaborators: F. Malakzadeh

H. Karimi, B. Erfanian, A. Mirzai

Ch. Sayad, D. Dianati, N. Ansari,

Mohammad-Reza Asgari, J. Parvizian

Doctor J. Amiri, Abbas Kiarostami

KANOON 1980