The department of Community Dentistry at Jinnah Medical and Dental College, abides by the motivational motto, “Dentistry is not expensive, Neglect is.”
JMDC has played an integral part in promoting oral health awareness amongst school children, belonging to lower or upper middle income class.
Dr. Maria K Siddiqui, Head of Department Community Dentistry, JMDC, along with her lecturers, Dr. Seema Shahid and Dr. Asim Iqbal, have been diligently working towards oral health awareness, by conducting learning series in various institutions and different types of setups in Karachi, such as, community visits to schools and NGOs, alongside, free dental camps at JMDC.
Recently collected data from various schools suggests that, lower income class has scarce knowledge regarding oral hygiene as compared to higher income class, who are well aware and manifest better oral hygiene.
Nevertheless, a higher tooth decay score was observed in high income class in comparison to underprivileged children, certainly due to high intake of sugar and fizzy beverages.
In the sessions held by JMDC’s department of Community Dentistry, oral health was promoted through informative lectures and demonstrations of tooth brushing on dental models.
It was observed that children still need to be educated regarding correct brushing techniques, and the harmful effects of sugary diet.
