Dantha Suraksha

Comprehensive Dental treatment is planned to treat the dental diseases in the government school children followed by empowering them with good oral hygiene through oral health education for school children, their parents, care givers and teachers. Final cost involved for the program will be analysed

WORK PLAN FOR THE RESEARCH WORK

TITLE OF PROJECT:

DANTHA SURAKSHA- Comprehensive Oral Health Care Program

School oral health promotion Programme has come to represent a unifying concept for those who recognise the need for change in the ways and conditions of living in order to promote health. The program aims to look at developing personal skills focussing on the cognitive, affective, psychomotor domains. Project Danta Suraksha intends to follow Preventive, behaviour change and Education approach working in partnership with voluntary agencies, school authorities and Govt.

Programs under Dantha Suraksha:

  1. Comprehensive Oral Health Care Program
  2. Training of volunteers to provide oral health education to the Govt. and Govt. aided school children.

CORE COMMITTEE:

Chairman of the project: Dr.H.N.ShamaRao

Co chairperson: Managing Trustee/ founder trustee of Sri Ramana Free Clinic Trust

Chief Project Officer: Dr.K.Pushpanjali

Co-ordinators: Dr.Shwetha KM, Dr.Veeranna Ramesh, Dr.Pallavi HN, Dr.Shivakumar, Mr.Naveen,

Working Group:

Postgraduate students: Public Health Dentistry-6, Pedodontics-l, Community Medicine-l, Paediatrics-l.

Phase I:

The government schools in Bangalore city limits will be selected by convenient sampling. Permissions from the school authorities and consent from the parents will be taken for the study.The school children between the age of 10-12 years will be selected for the study. The proforma will be used for recording the demographic details of the child, socioeconomic status of the parents, oral hygiene practices, and WHO 1997 proforma will be used for recording oral findings of soft and hard tissues. WHO proforma will be used as it consists of treatment needs also. Oral examination will be done to have baseline data regarding oral health status and treatment needs will be assessed. Then children whose parents will agree for the treatment  will be included in the study.Treatment will be planned for each child according to the need. The school children will be grouped as children requiring:

  1. oral prophylaxis,
  2. one surface filling,
  3. two surface filling, and
  4. Complex treatment.

Oral prophylaxis, one surface filling, two surface filling are done in the mobile dental van. Complex treatment will be referred to the hospital.

Phase II:

Treatment will be carried out in one after the other school twice a week. Simple treatment will be carried in mobile van and complicated ones will be treated in Hospital. After the treatment pit and fissure sealant will be used to seal deep pit. Supervised tooth brushing programme will be carried out at school. Once the treatment is done in one school, Oral Health Education to create awareness among school teachers and parents (care givers) will be given (regarding oral tissues, oral diseases, treatment and prevention of the oral disease). burden and sufferings. Tertiary prevention includes disability limitation and rehabilitation which helps the patient to restore the function. As the. level of prevention goes from primary to tertiary both physical and psychological sufferings, cost of the treatment, loss of school days or work days will also be more. So the less advantaged section of the society will choose suffering or services of quacks over proper dental treatment. Comprehensive dental treatment for public health service is not taken up by the government or any dental health institutions to the desirable extent. Hence the study is planned to conduct on the underprivileged groups of schools, comprehensively treat the oral diseases, empower school children with good oral hygiene habits and analyse the cost effectiveness of the program.

OBJECTIVES:

  • To improve knowledge and to develop appropriate oral health skills among the target groups.
  • To reduce the disease levels among the target groups by providing treatment.
  • To analyse the cost effectiveness of the programme.

NEED FOR THE PROGRAM:

Oral diseases are the most prevalent among school children. Poor oral health has a detrimental effect on child’s performance in school, the overall quality of life and the success in later life. Children who suffer from poor oral health are 12 times more likely to have restricted activity days including missing school. More than 50 million school hours are lost annually due to dental diseases. Dental caries is the most prevalent among children and remains a major public health . problem in most industrialized countries, affecting 60-90% of school children and a vast majority of adults, says a WHO report (2003). A substantial proportion of children in many developing countries are affected by dental caries and most of it is left untreated due to limited access to oral health care services. It is also found that, 50-100% of 12 year old school children are suffering from gingival inflammation (WHO information series on school health – document 11).

In India, dental caries afflicts more than fifty percent of the subjects in all age groups and gingivitis is ninety percent. More than 70% of the Indian population reside in rural areas where the dentist population ratio is more i.e. I: 150000. The underprivileged population in rural and urban give least importance to oral health. Many studies have shown that prevalence of oral diseases are high when compared to urban and privileged groups.

Oral diseases can be prevented at various levels; primary level includes both individual and professional methods of preventive techniques. Individual primary preventive methods include good oral hygiene practices, fluoride dentifrices and utilization of dental services. Individuals can be empowered by proper oral health education which in turn helps to maintain their oral hygiene and prevent dental caries and periodontitis. Secondary prevention includes early detection and prompt treatment that again reduces the diseases.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PARTNERS:

Sri Ramana free clinic trust:

  1. To identify schools and obtain permission from the concerned authorities.
  2. Proposed program schedule to be given to the identified schools.
  3. Providing the resources in the form of materials, stationeries and equipments.
  4. Average budget of 45000 p.a. will be provided by Sri Ramana Free Clinic Trust to cover the expenses.
  5. Provision of medical services.

M.S.Ramaiah Dental College and Hospital, Bangalore

  1. Allocating resources in terms of manpower.
  2. Baseline oral health data collection of the school children at the school premises.
  3. Preparing Oral Health Education materials for various target groups.
  4. Providing oral health education for students, teachers parents and volunteers.
  5. Maintenance of accounts/records of the program and submission once in 2 months.

Joint responsibilities

  1. Review meeting once in two months.
  2. Annual report to be submitted in the month of April 2nd week of every year.
  3. Parties will have access to the records.

Phase III:

The costs both (capital and recurring costs) incurred towards the program analysed by using the appropriate statistical technique. Then the oral health status is assessed. Treatment per service will be calculated. This will help the governmental or nongovernmental organisations to not only conduct camps at one point of time rather they can adopt the school till the entire children of the school are comprehensively treated. This will have credibility to the service they are rendering .

Sri Ramana Free Clinic Trust

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