Karachi: Department of Community Dentistry Baqai Dental College arranged a Community oriented field visit to ‘Baqai Medical Complex, Khuda Ki Basti, Surjani Town Karachi’ on 13th October 2022.
The visit was headed by Prof Dr Asghar Ali Shigri (HOD) along with other Assistant Professors, Dr Samreen Mazher, Dr Mahwish Bano, Dr Raza Abbidi, Dr Wajiha Anzar and 2nd year BDS students. The sole purpose of this visit was to enlighten dental students about the mission and vision of Late Prof Fareeduddin Baqai
Additionally, this visit also focused on improving oral health screening and oral health education skills of BDS students.
The administrator of BMC, Khuda Ki Basti, Mr Salman enthusiastically welcomed the faculty members as well as the students and gave them a thorough tour of the complex. He mentioned that the complex is providing free medical and dental facilities, free school education along with teaching necessary skills to the nearby residents, making them capable enough to support their families. 2nd year BDS students moved in form of groups and visited the OPDS, Wards and labs.
Later on, they visited the class rooms of pre-nursery to 10th graders comprising of approximately 400 students in total and educated them about the tooth-friendly diet, proper brushing and other plaque control methods which will aid them in the prevention of periodontal diseases at early stages, lowering the overall burden of the disease.
This was followed by an oral health education session, all the students were screened one by one and were given a chance to practice correct brushing techniques on models. It was observed that the overall prevalence of dental caries and periodontal disease was low in this setting, these findings might be attributed to the fact that frequent oral health sessions are being conducted by Baqai Dental College students and faculty in this setup for the last couple of years which has remarkably improved awareness in children and parents of this locality.
