Community Awareness Programme at Bolan Medical College

Dr. Naveen Fatima

Since many years, Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry; Bolan Medical College Dental Section, Quetta has been organizing community welfare programmes in different sectors across Balochistan. These programmes include Free Dental Camps, Oral Health Awareness Programmes and many others including Dental Clinic setup at SOS Village, Quetta. All these projects are embarked every year under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Mujeeb Baloch; HOD, Dr. Hammal Naseer Baloch, Dr. Ishfaq, Dr. Fazal Babar, Dr. Mehwish Jaffery.

Oral Health Awareness Programmes are organized annually in about four to five schools. Students of Second Professional Year are assigned the task of visiting schools and organizing the event. This is a healthy practice and it not only benefits the children of the community but also gives a great boost to the self-confidence of the young dental students.

Dr. Fazal Babar has been assigned the task of guiding the students in this respect. These awareness programmes include; presentations on different basic topics of concern especially to children. Students are involved in different activities which enhances not only the understanding but also the children enthusiasm in dental care. The young minds are nourished with the basic oral hygiene and other aspects by posters and models and different short plays are also performed to involve the children in a fun way.

Dr. Fazal skims through all the major dental issues and directs the students to different means which would have deep influence on the habits of children. The topics which are discussed are; Brushing, Flossing, Caries, Dietary Habits, Dental Chair Phobia, Dental Fluorosis, Smokeless Tobacco and many others. Dental Fluorosis holds special attention as it’s the major dental problem of the area.

Few schools are visited yearly and an obvious improvement is seen in the student’s awareness about their dental habits and other aspects. Keeping in view the doctrine of; “Prevention is better than cure” it is a very healthy activity to focus on the cause of the problems then to wait for the disease to occur and then proceeding with the treatment. While this activity also encourages the Dental students and gives them a strong foundation for the future endeavours.