Dental care one of major issues
EKUTHIMULENI – Dental care is one of the major issues in rural communities.
This observation was made by medical specialists from the Republic of China (Taiwan) during their dental outreach services, that they were conducting in the country. The dentists were in the country for two weeks and they visited several schools in the country both in rural and urban settings. During their stay in the country, they offered dental services including cleaning, refilling and overall testing of teeth.
On Saturday, the Taiwan Medical Mission (TMM) visited Mkhiweni constituency, to offer free medical services. They were stationed at Mncozini High School in Ekuthimuleni under Mkhiweni constituency. The services included ultrasound check-ups, medication dispensary and consultation with specialists among other services. care. Over 370 people showed up to the temporal medical facility to receive medical services.
Dr Chi-yu Yu said the dental outreach team visited some primary schools, where they conducted dental services.“We have noted that dental care was a major issue in rural areas compared to urban areas for both children and adults,” he said.
He highlighted a number of issues including, accessing advance or specialised medical resources, thus prolonging a lot of medical issues they had, including dental care services. He said, they noted that not all health facilities from the areas they visited had dental services, when they did, they were offered on specific dates and this resulted to limited number of people being assisted. Chi-yu Yu said a lot of the things they discovered could have been avoided if some of the issues were spotted earlier and attended to. However, due to the limitation, this led to tooth decay which to some resulted in the tooth being extracted. Adding to the dental services, they also conducted oral education to children, adults and care givers on oral health and care. Meanwhile, Mkhiweni constituency Member of Parliament (MP) Michael Masuku applauded the Republic of China on Taiwan for the services and the residents for utilising the services.
He said he felt his constituency was blessed to have secured the services.
Masuku added that the medical mission came at a very crucial time in his constituency. He stated that the health facilities under his constituency or those at a closer proximity had a shortage of specialists and medication. He said people had to travel to Manzini Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital to be attended to by specialists and this was proving to be costly for them.
Shortage
Further, the shortage of medical drugs, Masuku said, added to the challenges. The MP said the outreach programme gave his people the opportunity to see specialists and get some of the medication that they were not able to access in public medical facilities. He said that the cherry on top was to have some specialists who were already practising in local health facilities as part of the mission because they were able to refer some of the patients to their facilities.