Two year-old Christian Baah, now has smiles restored to face after undergoing surgery to remove a benign tumour from his mouth, which had swollen and deformed his face. The surgery was facilitated by the Pepsodent toothpaste brand.

Hailing from Mankessim in the Central region, Christian had lived with the benign tumour since turning one. The condition made him unable to smile, often inflicting pain whenever he ate, spoke or breathed. Little Christian could also not socialize as a result of his condition.

The surgery was performed by doctors of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital’s Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department in Accra. Pepsodent has a long standing relationship with the Ghana Dental Association (GDA), and as part of the brand’s sustainable living agenda, Pepsodent partnered the GDA to undertake this surgical operation.

An elated mother, Salamatu Ansah, shared her joy with Pepsodent for restoring her son’s smile and bringing happiness to her family.

Joel Boateng, Unilever Oral care Category Manager said “Earlier this year, Pepsodent released global research work that show that oral health issues impact children’s self-esteem and their potential to perform at school, socialize and thrive. Since Pepsodent is all about protecting the Ghanaian smile, the brand decided to intervene in Christian’s life and give him back the gift of his beautiful smile.”

This intervention forms part of Pepsodent’ s commitment to improve oral health in Ghana. Every year, Pepsodent partners the Ghana Education Service and Ghana Dental Association to go into schools and teach children the correct way to brush under the ‘Brush Day and Night Campaign’.

In addition, the brand provides free oral health screening in many markets and community centres nationwide. Pepsodent is on a mission to reach 10 million children with this brush day and night campaign by 2023 and has currently reached 5.2 million children.

“Unilever’s oral brands have been working on protecting smiles through free dental check-ups and school programmes for 25 years, to spread outstanding oral health across the globe,” added Mr Boateng.