Due to their commitment to provide the best oral health care to those in need of dental treatment, the DOH-CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) concluded Wednesday a two-day “Refresher Course for Public Health Dentists” in Metro Manila.
The course, held in Mandaluyong City, gave training on the proper applications of fluoride varnish, pits and fissure sealants, and glass ionomer cement.
“We must give our people the right oral care products and the highest standard of treatment for them to really feel that public health service is the best health care service in the country,” said Regional Director Eduardo Janairo.
“As public health specialists we must continue to improve our profession in order to protect and advance the welfare and interests of the people, especially those in the community,” he added.
To prevent further increase of oral health diseases, Janairo has directed the provision of surgical instruments (100 forceps) and hand instruments (100 sets of luxators), 50 units of portable dental equipment, 500 dentist’s health kit, 5,000 kiddie dental hygiene kits, 5,000 adult dental kits, 100 sets ultrasonic portable scaler, 500 gallons of sterilization and disinfection solution to various local government units. In addition, two dental vans were donated to Binan, Laguna and Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal who will provide mobile dental service to remote areas of the region.
“Slowly but surely we will provide the needed logistics to our public dentists for them to properly provide appropriate preventive care and treatment to the community and also to address other issues and concerns such as the lack of equipment including dental chairs to cater to far flung barangays and also augment the lack of dentists in other rural areas of the region,” Janairo assured.
He said the regional office has already completed three batches of refresher course for dentists and is scheduled to conduct two more to complete the training of all public health dentists of CALABARZON.
Dr. Edwina J. Go, Regional Oral Health Program Manager, the two-day course aims to promote oral health in the community, provide intervention including the use of fluoride varnish, pits and fissure sealants and tooth extraction for the reduction of tooth decay, especially among children and prophylaxis and restorative treatment for pregnant mothers, high school students, senior citizens.”
Public health dentists likewise were orientated on the Universal Health Care Law including the role of the public health dentist in the achievement of Universal Health Care and health promotion and preventive interventions for the planning of effective oral health programs.
“Tooth decay or dental caries can be prevented and as parents we must promote oral health care to our children while they are young. We must instill the importance of brushing and flossing daily after every meal,” she emphasized.
During the training, participants were also taught on how to use and properly fill-out the revised oral health forms by providing the necessary information including patient’s oral health status, services and medical history report.
The workshop also addressed concerns in the computation of interim national multipliers/factors in the determination of national and subnational targets for the use of heath sector in the generation of statistical reports.
The 2018 regional oral health annual accomplishment report showed a prevalence rate of 76.4 for dental caries and 16.2 for periodontal disease in the region. Batangas province recorded the highest number of dental caries among its population with 88 percent followed by Laguna province with 84 percent and Cavite with 78 percent.
As for periodontal disease, the province of Cavite has the highest incidence with 24 percent followed by Batangas with 20 percent and Quezon with 15 percent.
The regional theme for 2019-2020 is entitled “MaTamIS na NGITI para sa Lahat”. MaTamIS stands for Maayos at Tamang Ipahatid na Serbisyo and NGITI for Ngipin Gamutin, Ingatan at Tibayin Ito.
CALABARZON has a total of 262 public health dentists – 61 provincial health dentists, 79 municipal dentists, 70 city dentists and 46 hospital dentists.
The two-day refresher course was attended by 52 public health dentists from Quezon province.