World Oral Health Day Report 2019, FJDC

Karachi- Fatima Jinnah Dental College being one the oldest and renowned institutes recognizes the importance of education, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment necessary to maintain the oral health of infants, children, and adolescents through preventive and restorative care. Subsequently, FJDC believes that comprehensive health care cannot be achieved unless oral care is included in all health service programs. Fatima Jinnah Dental College has always considered schools as important partners in promoting good oral health practices and preventing oral disease among students. In Pakistan the incidence of dental caries as compared to few neighboring countries is low.

However, less than 28% of 12 year old children have been found to have healthy gingiva. Among women, 22% have been found to have bleeding gums. More than 95% of over 65 year old population has some form of gingival or periodontal disease. Oral cancer is the second most common form of cancer among men and women and constitutes about 10% of all malignant cancers. An increase in the burden of these oral health diseases give an insight of issues ranging from simple ignorance in maintaining good oral hygiene, improper diet and brushing technique, use of substance abuse to lack of awareness and inaccessible treatment facility.

Considering the importance of schools as an important health promotion strategy a collaborative oral health awareness activity was arranged for the students of Jinnah Foundation School, Al-Habib Grammar School and Kiran Foundation School at Fatima Jinnah Dental College’s Pre Clinical campus.

The most important aspect of this activity on World Oral Health Day was to invite school students in order to spread multidimensional awareness among teachers and kids by means of free oral health screening, games and a small fun fair arranged by the collaboration of Department of Community Dentistry and students of 1^st and 2^nd years. Dr Hannah Emmanual, Dr Rija Fatima, Dr Fizza Memon & Dr Rahul Andani under supervision of Dr Zubia Waqar organized a very colorful and informative in-house event for the students of all three schools. This activity was very successful and highly appreciated by the administration of all the schools and participants who attended it.

Oral diseases like dental caries, periodontitis, oral cancer and poor oral hygiene are all preventable conditions and Fatima Jinnah Dental College has always promoted an intersectoral and collaborative approach to address oral health issues. Indeed these approaches are made from a wider perspective, following an upstream approach to tackle the more significant determinants of oral health in Pakistani population and may result in a marked improvement of population’s oral health.