Tackling good oral health care in Diepsloot
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Wits Community Dentistry with sponsorship from Aquafresh together with the Gauteng Department of Health hosted an Oral Health Day.
Diepsloot, in the north of Johannesburg, is an informal settlement with a staggering population of around 350,000 people. Conditions are poor. Many of the inhabitants live in tiny shacks assembled mostly from scrap metal, wood, plastic and cardboard. The majority of the families lack access to basic services such as running water, sewage and rubbish removal. Healthcare comes at a premium with just two Primary Health Care clinics in the area and no dental facilities. Most residents would have to travel over 10km to oral health care centres.
Oral health is not something most families in the area place huge value on. Yet good oral health care is integral to general health. Research shows that poor oral health, such as dental caries (cavities) affects the general health and wellbeing of individuals as a result of the pain and disability it can cause (Marcenes et al, 2013 ). It affects the ability to speak, eat and carry out daily activities and evidence has shown dental caries to be associated with poor school performance amongst children ( Sheiham, 2005; Casamassimo et al, 2009).
In South Africa, over 60% of our primary school children suffer from dental decay ( Wyk & Wyk, 2004; Reddy & Singh, 2015 ), of more concern is that over 80% of the children go untreated for the disease ( Wyk & Wyk, 2004; Thekiso et al, 2012). This is because of the high-cost care that the oral health system is battling to cope with (Wyk & Wyk, 2004; Molete et al, 2016). The NHI white paper also reported that oral health care is the greatest (66%) health need amongst school learners in the country. (National Health Department, 2015).
In 2014 the Wits Department of Community Dentistry in the School of Oral Health Sciences joined hands with the global healthcare company Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) and the Gauteng Department of Health, as part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives. The aim was to take oral health care directly to this impoverished community and begin to tackle good oral health care.
GSK donated the two fully equipped mobile dental units to Wits so that the Wits Department of Community Dentistry would be able to conduct service learning and provide oral health services to the under-served communities of Diepsloot and other local underserves sites within a 5km radius of the University. Today these units provide services over three days of a week to about 1500 to 2000 patients annually.
The Wits Department of Community Dentistry decided to take things a little further and adopted a primary school named Muzomuhle, situated in Zone 2 of Diepsloot with approximately 2000 learners from grade 1 until grade 7. Oral health education, preventative and emergency services are provided to the school routinely.
This year the team from Community Dentistry with sponsorship from Aquafresh ( Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), together with the Gauteng Department of Health, hosted an Oral Health Day to provide oral health awareness and re-inforced education for the learners and rest of the school community.
“Education days are a lot of fun and are very visible in the community, they help create the awareness of the primary importance of oral health,” says Dr Mpho Molete, Lecturer in Community Dentistry.
According to Molete et al (2016), untreated tooth decay remains high and oral healthcare utilisation is low for the majority of children in South Africa, therefore alternative methods of improving access to low-cost oral healthcare are critical.