Dental Advocacy

What Happened

The prevalence of dental conditions among the poor and marginalized communities is a significant indicator of the need for an extensive screening and subsequent treatment of affected individuals. As part of the Dental Advocacy Agenda, with the slogan, “perfect smiles”, the team in collaboration with the mission’s team of LIC embarked on dental screening and treatment to two deprived communities in the Bono East Region namely, Abease and Darmankwanta. The outreach was not limited to the two communities alone but to other communities who could travel to the grounds. More so, a School-based Health Promotion Program was organized to Abease Senior High School. The dental screening and treatment was organized mainly for the two communities, namely Abease and Damankwanta both of which are part of the Pru east district assembly and the only secondary school in Abease. The aim of the dental screening was to detect individuals who had dental conditions at an early stage or were at risk of developing any of the dental conditions and provide treatment for the various conditions.

A 10-member dental team with their head being Dr. Israel P. Gamba left Kintampo at 7:00am on the 29th of September, 2022 and arrived in about two and half hours in Abease and started the screening right after that. The screening was held for 3 consecutive days in the two communities and was mainly organized for children between the ages of 3 and 18. A total number of about 1,016 people were screened but treatment was done for about 700 people. The dental screening was done mainly for the primary school children at Abease on the first day. A total of about 200 children were screened for the various dental conditions and received the appropriate treatment. Each child who was present for screening received a toothbrush and a tooth paste. On the 30th of September the medical outreach was held in Damankwanta. Similar to what was done at Abease, oral health education, screening and treatment was done mainly for children and few adults who were referred from the medical team to seek medical attention. A total of about 746 people were screened and treated. About 300 people received a brush and toothpaste after the treatment whiles the rest received only toothpastes. This included children from almost all the basic schools in the community. The screening was intended to end on the second day but was extended to the 1st of October to include students of the Abeaseman Senior High School in Abease. The dental team screened and treated about 70 students on the third day. Moreover, oral health education was also organized for the students. The team was not able to screen the intended number of students mainly because most of them not turn up. The team finished the screening earlier on the third day. It can be concluded that the outreach was successful and the objective of the program was achieved. All participants were provided with the necessary treatment for their specific conditions diagnosed. This will go a long way in improving the oral health of the children and adults who might have never had access to a dental clinic in their entire lives.

The following recommendations were made through observation of the procedures that went on at the outreach and also based on future projections; the need for regular dental screening as this will help reach out to the poor and marginalized who lack access to dental facilities. Regular screening and treatment of the various dental conditions should be done as these diseases could progress to various complications and might be life threatening.