It may not be the children’s favorite team during the School Continuity Programme. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t fear the dentist’s office? However, Dental members are able to gain the trust and affection of their children, thanks to the well-being they provide them with. Their medical and educational work is vital during the summer program, although PSE has two dentists on staff throughout the year. That way, their students do not usually need urgent assistance in August, it is mainly children who do not attend PSE centres during the school year who are most in need.
Guardians of the little white rows
Dental team consists of a volunteer dentist who coordinates the rest, a volunteer dentist, seven Cambodian fifth grade dental students and a Khmer instructor who helps organize the children in the waiting room and helps dentists with their requests. The manager, Vibol, and the nurse, Piseth, are usually in the clinic as well. Piseth works as the mobile unit’s driver too. There they carry the necessary equipment to provide the same care as in the clinic.
Dental team’s members earn the kid’s trust and love, thanks to the well-being they provide them with
The two dentists, Rosana – coordinator – and Alicia, usually share their daily work between the PSE headquarters and a nearby community service centre, as well as going together on certain days to the more remote PSE centres. A total of 60 children can be cared for per day, 30 at the headquarters and 30 at the mobile unit.
Uncertainty transformed into relief
Seeing the entire Dental team at work is a very comforting and reassuring experience. Some children arrive frightened, though with obvious pain or a clear need for care. The Khmer dentist students reassure them and explain what the dentist is going to do. “We try to show them the material and let them touch it, so that they become familiar with it and lose their fear. In short, we try to involve them in the action to make them trust us”, explains Rosana.
“We try to show them the material and let them touch it, so that they become familiar with it and lose their fear”, Rosana, Dental coordinator
Sometimes, they even count on the help of other children, who have already been to the clinic and are less fearful, to convince the most frightened and suspicious patients, according to Rosana, who is very proud of it.
Education and prevention are key
In addition to the short-term work they do at the clinic, the dentists in the School Continuity Program do an even more important job, since it means long-term. It is about educating in dental hygiene and prevention of tooth decay.
At the moment of showering, the children take a brush and brush their teeth, as if it were a ritual
This work begins by associating teeth brushing with the personal grooming routine that is instilled in all the PES centres. At the moment of showering, the children take a brush and brush their teeth, as if it were a ritual.
“At first they were given a brush for personal use, but there were always forgetfulness or leaks, so we chose to apply a high disinfection treatment to the brushes after each use, so that everyone always had one available,” Rosana says. “Some children, thanks to this routine, directly ask the monitors for their toothbrush if they are late in giving it to them when they go to the shower”, she adds.
“Some children, thanks to this routine, directly ask the monitors for their toothbrush if they are late in giving it to them when they go to the shower”, Rosana
The Dental team gives talks and workshops on dental hygiene in all the centres that run the summer programme. They do this through games, stories and competitions. For example, they have a food stash and a card game, both to show which food products are beneficial or harmful for teeth.
“The task of teaching them how important it is for their health to take care of their teeth is, in the long term, more decisive than the timely removal of a tooth”, Alicia, volunteer dentist.
In short, the aim is to prevent fewer and fewer children from becoming unaware of what a toothbrush is. “The task of teaching them how important it is for their health to take care of their teeth is, in the long term, more decisive than the removal of a tooth,” concludes Alicia, the other volunteer dentist in the team.
The sponsor
PSE would like to thank Jamming Teatro and Compañía Jamms for its financial support and possitive energy to the School Continuity Programme.
A day with the team
