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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Indian Dental Association Launches "Child Task Force" Project Report By Pranav Damle

The Indian Dental Association launched its prestigious project “Child Task Force” on Sunday, February 28, 2010, at a glittering function organized at the Taj Lands End, Bandra. Under its banner, Child Dental Centre, IDA has plans to initiate a preventive programme to intercept dental caries with the aim of significantly improving child dental health in the country and eradicating dental caries, one of the commonest dental problems affecting almost 80 per cent of the child population in the country.

Consistent with its long-standing commitment to improving oral health among school children, IDA announced today at the launch of the Child Task Force the establishment of a Child Dental Center for prevention of dental caries among children. This Center will undertake, besides oral check up programmes of school children, the correct method of brushing, teacher and parent education programmes to create dental awareness, provision of critically needed preventive dental services through promotion of sealants and fluoride gells for prevention of dental caries through school based oral health programmes.

The Child Dental Centre, to begin with, plans to undertake a dental check up of school children in 86000 primary schools in Maharashtra State and will help the school maintain oral health records of primary school children.

Oral health is passing through a rapid transition consistent with the changing scenario of medical and scientific knowledge. In order to effectively meet the challenges posed by these changes, policy makers need the information, capacity and tools to assess and monitor health needs, choose intervention strategies and design policy options appropriate to the given situations. The findings of the school dental check ups under the IDA Child Dental Center, it is felt, would go a long way in improving the oral health scenario of school children in the country.