The work done by the Dental team within the School Continuity program is crucial. Indeed, children have many oral health problems that can be really harmful to them. That’s why a team of dentists and dental students is set up during the summer. As the specialists in kids’ smiles, they not only participate to the different project’s activities – such as the showers when the children arrive, but they also have their own missions as the job done at the clinic -treatments and care – or the sensitization workshops.
When the kids are making their chuas after breakfast or lunch, before being splitted among the activities, the very girly team of dentists choose the kids who are suffering from teeth pain or any kind of emergency and they get treated at the clinic located on the main campus, at Central. Although it is not the only place they go to, it’s the only one where they permantenly are. To visit and take care of the other children, Teresa, Carmen, Sofía, Valentina, MariFé and Rosana travel in a van equipped with two mobile chairs and driven by Piseth who combines being nurse and driver.
“Here we come to prevent diseases and to make children able to take care of themselves by teaching them how to” Rosana
In addition to the treatment they provide to the kids who need it, they check everyone else and write down those who are in need of a longer treatment, so that PSE can continue this work the whole year long. However, the most important job this team does is sensitization. “Prevention is very important, making them pay attention to their bucodental health. There are children who have teeth that just happened to randomly grow and they already are extremely damaged because they are not used to brush their teeth.” comments Carmen, monitor within the Dental team.
It is very important to tell these kids how important is the bucodental health, that is why the dental team gives talks on self-care, teeth-brushing, healthy food, oral disease prevention and so on. Some projects, as Specials or Teenagers also have specific workshops on how drugs and other substances may affect their mouth.
Dental takes a big place among the different projects of the School Continuity Program : a lot of the kids coming in August are not in PSE the rest of the year and the dental treatments and care they are offered during the summer program are extremely helpful for them.
However, it is worth noting the remarkable work that dentists do the other eleven months of the year. Vibol, the clinic’s manager, works the rest of the year at PSE, and helps out as much as he can during the Summer Program. “My job here is to organize the volunteers, the material they need every day… I play the nurse and the dentist’s assistant in the van when we visit the other summer camps”. Furthermore, Khmer dentists such as Vibol help a lot the European ones because they can actually talk and explain bucodental hygiene to children which greatly facilitates the work that has to be done.
Teeth brushing is not an option but an obligation.
“I come back to Cambodia because I can see that the NGO really takes care of the children, you see the evolution”, Rosana, the Dental coordinator, explaining why she is coming to Cambodia year after year for four years. “I have heard about PSE during a Dentistry Congress because a friend of mine had already come to collaborate with the School Continuity Program.” She comes back every year since then. Her main motivation is to teach people how to take care of themselves, to make them understand how bucodental health is fundamental and that teeth brushing is not option but an obligation.
Dental hygiene is a long-term project for sure, but its slow-but-yet-noticeable evolution shows how the NGO influences the children lives. They are now able to recognize harmful food for their teeth, they also know how and when they have to brush their teeth for instance. Some people, like Rosana can observe this evolution year after year.
“If we want to give the best education to the kids here, we need to give them the best care too and, mostly, to teach them how to better take care of themselves”, Rosana.
Although the dental project is not the one making the kids the happier in a first place, the latters know and realize how much they’ve helped them. “This year, when I arrived so on my first day, a child came to me and hugged me because we treated him last year and we took away his tooth pain” says Rosana.
“We have been seeing an evolution because there are children who now come with their toothbrush, they start to see it as part of their routine. Getting a shower, coming with clothes and shoes and having their toothbrush, all of these have the same importance now. They see it as one more fundamental thing, it’s not optional, it has to be like that. There are children who understood and come with their toothbrush and it’s a very big satisfaction for us. We’ve even met kids who had never seen a toothbrush. So If we want to give the best education to the kids here, we need to give them the best care too and, mostly, to teach them how to better take care of themselves. That, and preventing disease are our main objectives.”
The work and dedication of the Dental Team is remarkable and of vital importance, both for the present and for the future of the children. The whole team is working hard to change children’s habits and make them independent about their oral health so that they no longer keep making the mistakes that affect their dental health.
PSE would like to thank Devoteam Foundation for their economic support to the Dental Team’s project.
