Three Pediatric Department Residents Participate in Oral Health & Hygiene Project in Ethiopia

Drs. Vani Takiar PEDO 17, Dina Ghaly-Habib PEDO 17, and Norma Herrera PEDO 17 travelled to Ethiopia to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an oral health education (OHE) program for primary school children in rural areas of the country. The three Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) residents were part of The Oral Health and Hygiene Project, a subset of the Millennium Villages Project organized by the United Nations Development Program, Columbia University, and GlaxoSmithKline. The project took place over a course of four months, from March to June 2016.

 The residents were sent to the Tigray region of Ethiopia, which is home to nearly 4.5 million people, of which 80% live in rural areas and health problems are numerous. The ratio of dentists to citizens in all of Ethiopia is approximately 366,000 to 1, meaning oral health and hygiene is often lacking or non-existent.

Knowing that focusing on preventative measures would be more cost-effective and feasible, Drs. Takiar, Ghaly-Habib, and Herrera focused their efforts on school-children, using their local schools as a platform to educate about oral health and hygiene. However, since no formal oral health programs existed in the schools, the OHE strategy called for educating the schoolteachers in how to instruct their students and hopefully alter oral hygiene habits. Additional obstacles were the lack of access to schools, and the lack of resources within the schools. Most children have to walk for hours, and don’t have access to books, materials, or proper classroom facilities.

The project was performed in two phases. First, the three residents administered a standard oral examination on the 5^th and 6^th grade students. They were assessing gingival health, oral hygiene, calculus, dental caries, dental fluorosis, dental trauma, and extra-oral conditions. Once examinations were completed, recommendations were made for emergent treatment or preventive care. Phase I also included 24 educational sessions for the school teachers, so they could educate their students on basic dental knowledge. The second phase, performed six weeks later, was a second oral examination, to see if the children had followed their treatment plans, and if the teachers had integrated dental education into their curricula to support the OHE program.

Dr. Wendy Cheney, Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Director of the Advanced Specialty Education Program in Pediatric Dentistry, and Dr. Jayapriyaa R. Shanmugham, Director of Research and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, traveled traveled to Ethiopia in late May 2016 to participate in the examinations for Phase II. Their findings were promising, as oral health knowledge increased significantly. Notably, the students’ knowledge about toothpaste and tooth brushes increased from 2.5% to 91.7% and 22.9% to 97.5%, respectively. Overall, the residents found an improvement in attitudes and practices in oral health among the students.