Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 6: In continuation of efforts to ensure a robust healthcare system, experts have recommended a comprehensive plan for improving oral health in tribal communities as well as in hard-to-reach areas.
While the proposal emphasizes infant oral healthcare, it places special focus on making services accessible and developing the necessary infrastructure.
It states that at the village level, each village health guide and Anganwadi worker must be trained to work on infant preventive oral healthcare and the promotion of oral healthcare in mothers and children.
The recommendations state, “For a group of villages, multiple health workers, both male and female, after suitable training, shall also function for the prevention of oral diseases, oral health education, relief of pain, and referral purposes.”
The document, which comes after experts advocated for developing a ‘Right-to-Care’ Policy for J&K Tribals, has been crafted with insights from experts across the country who participated in the roundtable dialogue discussing healthcare disparities in tribal regions.
It is to be noted here that the dialogue was held in collaboration with ECHO India and GMC Srinagar’s Community Medicine Department in October, also attended by top officials from the administration.
The plan for transforming oral healthcare also calls for stationing additional staff, such as Dental Surgeons, dental assistants (both male and female), and supporting staff at the primary level for all those patients referred by the health workers, either from schools or from communities.
“A special oral health educator should be inducted for the purpose of regular oral health education and screening of children at schools. At the Community Health Centre level, a specialist (MDS) Public Health Dentist shall be available for complex treatments and to educate dentists and health workers regularly and monitor the work assigned to them under School Dental Health Programs.”
The experts have also stated that there is a need to involve faculty and teaching staff posted in Dental Colleges and hospitals, as well as private practitioners working independently, while calling for the development of new courses with the concept of implementing primary prevention for oral diseases.
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