Grenada’s Ministries of Health and Education, along with the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) Henry Schein Cares Global Outreach Program, have invited all individuals in need of dental care – extractions, fillings and root canals – to visit a free temporary dental clinic to be held at the Grenada Youth Centre in Morne Rouge, St. George, from Sunday March 18th to Friday, March 23rd.
On Sunday March 18, the patients would be treated by at least 30 dentists and specialists from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Then from Monday, March 19th to Friday, March 23rd, dental patients would be treated from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day.
This free dental clinic is one aspect of a comprehensive dental care prevention and treatment outreach program of the NYU College of Dentistry, in collaboration with the Government of Grenada.
The three-year program is being implemented as a component of the Government’s primary healthcare plan with the following goals:
- to build capacity within the present infrastructure;
- to increase oral health awareness and access to care in the nation;
- to address as many of the nation’s children’s oral health needs as possible;
- to develop a sustainable preventative dentistry program; and
- to implement preventative measures that will lead to a 50 percent decrease in new decay over three years.
Specifically, the program is comprised of a survey; a school-based plan of preventative care and treatment; free, open community-based clinics which treat children and adults; and a component that provides for the training of 15 public healthcare providers, who would ensure that the initiatives of the program are sustained beyond the three-year period.
Additionally, NYUCD has also committed to extending free continuing dental education for dentists practicing in Grenada. One such session has already been completed and preparations are being made for the second, according to Dr. Stuart Hirsch, NYUCD’s Vice Dean for International Initiatives and Development.
According to both the NYUCD and Ministries of Health and Education officials, this dental project is already positively contributing to improved, sustainable dental health in Grenada.
“By increasing awareness and encouraging better preventative dental care habits among our children and adults, our government and people will be saving a whole lot of our limited resources in the long-term,” said Hon. Ann Peters, Minister of Health. “Besides, we will have a healthier, more productive population and workforce, as a result of this initiative,” she added.
Great emphasis is also being placed on advancing this initiative in all of the nation’s schools. As Ms. Hermione Baptiste, Health and Family Life Coordinator of Grenada’s Ministry of Education puts it, “The practice of proper, regular oral hygiene that is now being cultivated among our children will last a life time; and the benefits are innumerable.”
Now in its second year, the dentists and specialists of the NYUCD Global Outreach, with the engagement and ground support of the Government of Grenada, have seen all the students (over 22,000) in primary and secondary schools in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, as well as treated about 2000 adults.
To date, this is the eight visit of the NYUCD team of doctors, to administer care through the school based care and clinic services of the program. Just prior to this current visit, a team was here reexamining and re-vanishing children’s teeth in schools throughout Grenada.
As many as 45,000 fillings and hundreds of extractions, root canals and other oral surgeries have been administered at no cost to patients.
Glenelg Spring Water and Grenada Breweries Limited have donated towards this free clinic.
(Source http://www.spiceislander.com/?p=6545)
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