Hard candies are the new enemy
of Maasai children – decay from tourist candy.

Sweets provided by unenlightened tourists are the cause of much tooth loss, pain, and suffering. I wish all the tourists could see Mjoya, the five-year-old Maasai girl with a swollen face, and most of her deciduous teeth decayed. They should witness her fear, crying, and devastation. Her fate in life was to be born in 1998 in a manyata 200 feet off the Sekenani Gate, where well-meaning tourists showered her with candy.

These children have no protection from the soluble sugars in hard candy. They have no fluoridated water, toothbrushes, toothpaste with fluoride, painkillers, antibiotics, or dentists. They do not go for six-month checkups at a dental office. There is no access to topical fluorides, or composite sealants in deep fissures on molars that prevent the beginning of many cavities. When the cavities grow larger, they often develop an abscess at the end of the root. A fistula draining infectious germs directly into the mouth is accompanied quite often with a swollen face. These kids have no antibiotics. After Maasai children experience sleepless nights and continuous pain, a Maasai elder will rip out the offending tooth with the point of a knife, without anesthesia, often times causing permanent damage.

Two employees from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) heard of the devastation of the Maasai children’s teeth around the entrance gates to the Masai Mara and Serengeti gates and offered to do a television documentary. This resulting 23 minute DVD in a dramatic way presents the “Plight of the Maasai Children.” The message of the DVD is to show the damage caused by tourists candy and the need to enlighten tourists to take pens and pencils to the children of Africa.