KARACHI: The department of Community Dentistry, SIOHS, in collaboration with the Student Council of JSMU, recently organized an awareness session for traffic police officials regarding oral health. In the session, the 2nd year BDS students of SIOHS highlighted the importance of oral health and hygiene in daily life. They demonstrated the different tooth brushing methods and examined the traffic police staff.
More than 90% of oral cancer cases we have seen in Pakistan are linked to tobacco use, said Professor S M Tariq Rafi, Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Otorhinolaryngology, Jinnah Sindh Medical University. He also informed the audience that the harmful effects of tobacco abuse could take up to 20 to 25 years to manifest as a deadly disease.
Dr Marium Azfar Associate Incharge of Community Dentistry, SIOHS, Dean, SIOHS, Professor Kefi Iqbal, and Principal, SIOHS, Zubair Abbasi, spoke at the occasion as well. Student Council representatives, Moiz Ahmed, Asad Hussain Malik, Kiran Abbas, Abdul Moeed, and Shaji Naveed assisted the faculty with dental check-ups. Dr Anita Shah supervised the volunteers of SIOHS.
The session was a part of the JSMU-SIOHS outreach program, which aims to spread oral health awareness. Pictorial PowerPoint presentations assisted the interactive session.
After the screening, at the end of the session, free Colgate samples were distributed among the traffic police staff.
The SSP, Traffic South, Dr Asad Ejaz Malhi, said that lack of awareness regarding the deadly effects of chewing betel leaf, gutka, betel nut, and other substances had put a large portion of the population at high risk. He thanked the University for making efforts to provide awareness to the masses and urged the officials to be more careful about their oral hygiene.
