Latest nation-wide campaign aims to raise societal awareness on cleft patients; proceeds to fund surgical treatments through Operation Smile Thailand
LISTERINE, Thailand’s most advocated mouthwash and oral health care brand, has partnered with Watsons Thailand and the Operation Smile Thailand to launch the “Healthier Breath, Healthier Mouth, Healthier Life” campaign to improve the quality of life of children with cleft lip and cleft palate in Thailand. The campaign aims to drive participation from the public to help these children receive the appropriate surgical treatment that will help them restore their lively smiles and improve their overall health.
Ravi Bordia, General Manager, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health Thailand, said: “LISTERINE envisions a world where everyone, everywhere recognises that a healthy mouth is an important part of a healthy self. Cleft lip and cleft palate are two of the significant ailments that we treat seriously. The ‘Healthier Breath, Healthier Mouth, Healthier Life’ campaign is inspired by Thailand as the ‘Land of Smiles’, but there are many underprivileged children suffering from congenital cleft lip and palate. They cannot afford to have a lively smile and eat food or drink water properly, leading to other health problems that affect their daily lives.”
The campaign aims to raise awareness of this condition and encourage society to help the disadvantaged young children with cleft lip and palate so that they can live a normal, healthy life like others and become widely accepted in society. This campaign is also reflective of LISTERINE’s brand purpose which is to inspire the world to discover the transformative impact of a healthy mouth.”
Commenting on the collaboration, Nuanphan Jayanama, Chief Operating Officer, Watsons Thailand, said, “Watsons is committed to continuing its corporate social responsibility in order to grow the business in alignment with the corporate vision that gives priority to sustainable development. The company is ambitious to bring over 10,000 lively smiles to children with cleft lip and cleft palate by 2030 through support funds and contributions of around 250 million baht. We hope that the “Give a Smile” campaign will play a vital role in returning happy smiles to children with cleft lip and cleft palate so that they can stay healthy and live a normal life. The initiative is in line with the brand purpose “Put a smile on customers’ faces today and tomorrow.””
The burden of cleft lip and cleft palate in Thailand
The Smile Foundation Thailand report highlights the information that cleft lip and cleft palate are the congenital orofacial clefts as a result of birth defects that occurred when a baby's lip or mouth did not form properly during pregnancy. The cleft lip is an opening or split in the upper lip whereas the cleft palate is an opening or split in the roof of the mouth (palate) that occurs when the tissue does not fuse together during development in the womb, resulting in the palate not joining together completely.
The main causes of cleft lip and cleft palate are chromosomal abnormalities, inherited genes, and combinations of different genetic and environmental factors. The condition is also affected by external factors during the first three months of pregnancy such as malnutrition, adverse effects of certain medications and chemical substances, and infections.
In Thailand, the incidence of cleft lip and/or cleft palate is around 1-2 per 1,000 live births or about 700-800 live births per year. Patients with orofacial clefts are advised to receive treatments at the early stage to reduce risk of permanent disabilities to improve the look and appearance, breathing, hearing, and speech and language development.
The cleft lip and palate treatments can be comprehensively performed by multi-professional, interdisciplinary care during rehabilitation and health promotion as well as inter-professional collaboration among health professionals. Treatments vary depending on the severity of the cleft and the child’s age. A patient might receive more than one surgery to repair orofacial clefts and a patient must make intensive efforts to always improve oral health hygiene under a comprehensive cleft care after the surgery.
Dr. Yupares Nimkarn, Chairman of the Operation Smile Thailand, said “Operation Smile Thailand would like to thank LISTERINE and Watsons Thailand for their continued contributions and support over the past several years. As an international non-profit medical charity organisation with regional offices in 43 countries across the world, it has the commitment to providing assistance and surgeries to disadvantaged patients suffering from cleft lip and palate and other facial deformities. Therefore, we feel a great honour to receive funds that will be used to support the costs of surgical treatment to repair cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities for underprivileged children under the Operation Smile Thailand Foundation. The campaign also helps raise awareness about the incidence of cleft lip and cleft palate in Thailand.”
Campaign mechanics: how you can contribute
The Healthier Breath, Healthier Mouth, Healthier Life campaign saw a heartfelt revival of a sensational song called “Lom Hai Jai” (“Breathe”) covered by a group of children who received cleft lip and palate surgeries. The original songwriter “Boyd Kosiyabong” created a new version of the song for exclusive use in the campaign.
Interested people can participate in the campaign to help children with cleft lip and palate live a better quality of life by purchasing any LISTERINE mouthwash and oral healthcare flavoured variants at Watsons store. From October 11, 2022 until December 21, 2022, 5 baht will be donated for every bottle of LISTERINE mouthwash towards life-changing surgeries.
Stay tuned for the latest updates on the “Healthier Breath, Healthier Mouth, Healthier Life” video campaign and anticipate a new, uplifting version of “Lom Hai Jai” re-written by original songwriter “Boyd Kosiyabong” with hashtags #ลมหายใจดีเพื่ออีกชีวิตที่ดีขึ้น #HealthierBreathHealthierMouthHealthierLife. The beautiful, inspirational song is covered by The CleftChoir of children who received cleft lip and palate repair surgeries inviting people to join the charity campaign.
For more information, visit Facebook: @Mr.Listerine or https://www.facebook.com/Mr.Listerine/ or https://www.listerine.co.th/