More than 60 percent of elementary school students in Taiwan have cavities, a percentage that puts the nation second highest among Asian countries after the Philippines, a Taipei City councilor said yesterday.
According to a survey conducted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Lee Yen-hsiu (
More than 40 percent of parents failed to arrange regular dental check ups for their kids, the survey said.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
In addition to berating parents, Lee also blamed what she described as poor dental care education on schools and the Taipei City Department of Education, urging them to provide better dental care at schools.
"The department should add more funding for dental care, and promote dental care at schools," Lee told a press conference at the Taipei City Council yesterday.
Parents and schools do not place enough importance on children's dental health, Lee said, and as a result the cavity rate among children in Taiwan is three times that of Hong Kong or Singapore.
According to the department's statistics, more than 58 percent of first graders in Taipei had tooth decay in 2005, lower than the 64 percent reported in 2004.
The department said it had a dental care budget of NT$1.39 million (US$40,000) for elementary school students, and invited dentists to perform dental checkups on students at school each semester, but acknowledged that it needed to continue educating students about brushing their teeth after meals.
Chen Shih-yue (
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching