‘Toothbrush Lady’ bids goodbye

When she’s not in her clinic attending to her patients, she is out there in the classrooms patiently explaining to elementary and high school students the dangers of betel nut chewing and mixing it with tobacco.

But Dr. Linda Randall, resident dental hygienist of the Seventh-Day Adventist Dental Clinic will no longer be doing this for long. Dr. Randall, otherwise known the “Toothbrush Lady” is leaving the island next month.

And she will surely be missed. After all, she got the ball rolling with her controversial statement against betel nut chewing, a practice on the island which has been woven in its tradition and culture.

Everyone who sits in her chair in SDA Clinic gets a lesson on brushing one’s teeth. “I don’t care who they are but they will have to listen to what I have to say on how to clean their teeth,” she said. Dr. Randall has taught some 8,000 children in the CNMI how to brush their teeth since she first came here in Saipan in December 1995.

As she spoke in various public schools on Tinian and Saipan, Dr. Randall has no doubt touched the children’s life as they sent her letters confessing their addiction to betel nut and tobacco.

She keeps about 400 letters written by the students aside from the sketches and drawings they have sent her. A junior high school student has even told her that her betel nut chewing habit costs $2,190 a month.

This lady who is so passionate in educating her patients and students could not help but cry when she reads the letters of the students telling her how they are trying to stop chewing betel nut and tobacco.

“When I talk to them, I tell them I am doing this because I love you kids. I believe you are the resources of tomorrow so you must be given choices when you make decisions,” she said.

Recently, some teachers have told her the changes they have noticed how some students in high school have quit the habit since Dr. Randall was able to discuss the issue with them when they were in their elementary grades. According to Dr. Randall, what she liked most in her job is educating the parents of the chewers too so that they can help their kids in quitting the habit.

Betel nut and tobacco can cause leukoplakia which can lead to oral cancer, and this occurs in over half of all users in the first three years of use. Dr. Randall has seen several patients here on the island with precancer lesions, including a high school student.

But the most alarming thing is that we have younger people now, as early as eight years old, who are chewing betel nut with tobacco. “You have to remember that nicotine is addictive whether you chew it or smoke it,” she said.

When betel nut, which contains cancer-producing agents, is mixed with tobacco, the risks of having oral cancer increases 10 times, she added.