Dental health, a luxury
The youngest sibling of my husband is a professional dentist now residing in Baguio City. I can say that having a dentist in the family is considered a blessing knowing that dental services such as dental prophylaxis (cleaning), filling, tooth extraction, and dental braces usually come with a hefty price. We usually visit Baguio City once a year to have our cleaning procedure and filling if needed for free. Additionally, we feel comfortable and at ease whenever our procedures are done by my brother-in-law.
In some government agencies such as DepEd and other public health offices, we have our regional dentists and they operate the dental clinics in the office. This is also considered a privilege as the dental clinic offers basic services to the employees. On the other hand, employees from the private sector usually have their health insurance packages to cover their dental services through accredited dentists.
But I am left wondering about how the marginalized and below-average families avail the needed dental services given the fact that most rural health units do not have well-equipped dental clinics and, more so, do not even have a dentist assigned in the community. It is worth noting that the DepEd has programs that advocate dental health among its schools.
Public schools would usually have occasional activities that promote dental health, especially in February coinciding with the National Dental Health Month Celebration. The Department of Education launched the Oplan Kalusugan sa DepEd or OK as DepED Flagship Program in 2019 to advocate six areas of health and wellbeing of students. These include the School-Based Feeding Program (SBFP), National Drug Education Program (NDEP), Adolescent Reproductive Health Education (ARH), Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools. (WinS), Mental Health Awareness Program, and Medical, Dental, and Nursing Services.
The Regional Oral Health Month Celebration aims to strengthen oral health awareness and service delivery, establish strong regional partnership with other agency in the provision of oral health services in schools, and promote dental health consciousness among the school populace.
The establishment of dental clinics in schools and the provision of dental equipment as mandated by DepEd order No. 41, s.2021 or the Guidelines in the Implementation of School Health and Dental Health Care Program Including Medical and Nursing Services for School Year 2020-2021, the School Dental Health Care Program will provide learners in public schools health care supplies such as toothpaste, toothbrush, and soap to all Kinder to Grade 6 learners; application of fluoride varnish to all Kinder to Grade 3, prioritizing all Kinder entrants, if applicable.
DepEd Region III, through its Medical and Dental Unit, has also implemented several activities that promote oral health care among learners. These include the distribution of oral health kits to a total of 1,285,122 public kindergarten and elementary learners in Central Luzon in 2021 during the height of the pandemic. The said hygiene kits are a household-level ORAL and WASH intervention recommended for use during the COVID-19 pandemic and for the relief of other oral health problems that the learners are experiencing. With the promotion of good dental hygiene and proper oral health care, students can develop good health practices to help improve their learning habits.