In recent years, with the arrival of Drs Dineshbhai and Shailben Vasa the dental health programme at ARCH Dharampur has become a prominent feature of health services. Dental health services are provided in two forms. Clinic based care and mobile van service to remote villages and schools.
The dental health clinic at Dharampur is a fully equipped unit with two chairs, digital X-Ray facility, and all equipments. Two full time and one part time dentist provide dental filling, crown fitting, root canal treatment, bridge making, denture fitting, and extraction services. Drawing patients from around 80 villages spread over an area of 60 km; annually 2,400 patients are treated at the fix unit in Dharampur. Daily attendance of 12-15 patients keeps the clinic busy 6 days a week.
This year a lot of new developments have occurred at Arch Dental. Two local Dentists -Dr. Bhumi and Dr.Niti handled the patients at the Clinic and in the Mobile Van at the Villages in coordination with Bhansali Trust workers. 5 Camps per week were organized and about 20 patients per camp were treated. In addition, Dr. Swatiben from Karamsad Dental College gave her precious input and made relevant suggestions for the Dental Project. She also visited our Clinic to attend to Surgical patients. She tackled difficult extractions including impacted teeth and followed them up with return visits. She is on call for surgeries when required. Also, Dr. Jaybalaben from Jamnagar has commenced Dental awareness training to Health Workers. She is also emphasizing on Basic Oral Hygiene. Also, Dr. Mukti has joined the team from April 1st, and she will handle the Clinic and the Camps.
The dental mobile van, first of its kind in Gujarat has become a flagship programme to promote ARCH’s name in remote villages. The air-conditioned van is equipped with a flexible but sturdy mobile dental chair, equipment trolleys, suction machine, a power generator where by a dentist is able to perform full dental care in remotest places. Recently added digital X-Ray machine is aiding diagnosis and complex treatment like root canal while in remote villages.
Through twice a week visit by mobile van to remote places and schools, about 4,000 patients (half of which are school children) have been provided treatment nearer their home.
The acceptance and demand for dental treatment and oral hygiene is increasing for the past three years. To capitalise on this prominence we are including dental care and awareness teaching. Sets of posters, leaflets and video have been prepared to support awareness training by Village health workers and school children. In a recent health survey it was found that increasing numbers of people are adopting “brushing” (against traditional stick) as a mean for cleaning their teeth. School children are adapting to brushing faster than the adult.
We are increasingly facing the challenges of deteriorating dental and oral health because of habits of chewing (pan, tobacco and harmful substances) and increased consumption of sugary drinks and food.