Dental Aid Network By Dr. Zohaib Khan

The devastating earthquake of 8th October 2005 in Northeast Pakistan claimed the lives of almost 90,000 and displaced more than 3.5 million people in the region.

It is estimated around 19,000 children were killed during the earthquake, as entire buildings and infrastructure were destroyed. Of the many devastating effects of the earthquake, one problem which arose, was the prevalence of children who lost their parents to the earthquake, and as a result had become orphaned. The immediate earthquake response was provided from various national and international charities. It was following the earthquake that a charity called Kashmir Orphans Relief Trust (KORT) was formed to provide long-term support for orphaned children.

Who are Dental Aid Network?

Dental Aid Network (DAN) is a registered British charity who provide dental relief for people around the world. The charity aims to promote oral health for the impoverished around the world who do not have access to dental care. DAN provide oral health education, advise on prevention techniques and offer simple restorative and emergency dental treatment.

Project Kashmir 2016

DAN organised a dental relief mission for Kashmir, Pakistan in October 2016 with the aim of providing dental treatment for orphans and disadvantaged children in the area. This charity mission was carried out in collaboration with Kashmir Orphans Relief Trust (KORT), who provide welfare for many orphans in Kashmir. DAN aimed to provide essential dental treatment for over 200 orphans of KORT, (many of whom had never previously seen a dentist), as well as children with special needs in the Kashmir area.

After months of careful planning, preparation and anticipation, Team DAN flew out to Pakistan on 6th October 2016 to undertake the charity’s second successive dental aid programme in Kashmir. During their time in Kashmir, the DAN team were honoured to be invited as special guests to a memorial programme arranged at the new KORT educational complex in Jarikas, Kashmir on Saturday 8th October 2016. This event marked the 11th anniversary of 2005 earthquake and was attended by Government ministers and local dignitaries.

Dental relief for orphans and disadvantaged children

The dental mission consisted of six clinical days, with the aim of assessing and treating over 200 children at KORT, children from a local blind school and a local school for children with hearing impairment. DAN team was supported by a local government hospital in Mirpur who kindly allowed the full time use of 4 dental surgeries.

The first working day involved screening of all of the KORT children and setting up of the dental surgeries. The children were organised into age groups, and dental examinations and treatment planning carried out. Treatment appointments were booked for the following days, with priority given to urgent cases.

Over the next couple of days, the team worked extremely hard to provide dental treatment for the children. Treatment was varied with provision of periodontal therapy, restorative dentistry and oral surgery. Clinics started at 9am, and would finish after 5pm. It was fantastic to see so many of the children completely at ease in the dental chair.

It must be said, the children demonstrated a great level of cooperation and compliance with the dental treatment they received. Some of the very young children were understandably anxious, and a range of acclimatisation techniques were deployed for such cases.

The entire DAN team could converse in Urdu, which helped greatly in building good rapport with the children.

On the third and fourth day, Team DAN treated children with special needs, which included children with visual and/or hearing impairment. Surprisingly, many of the children with visual impairment had excellent levels of oral hygiene and treatment need amongst this group was very low. Team DAN provided oral Hygiene and Tooth-brushing advice on a one-to-one basis for the children with special needs.

Oral health promotion in impoverished areas

One of the aims of the relief mission was to provide an Oral Health Awareness programme in conjunction with local schools in Kashmir. Several local public schools were contacted beforehand and the dental team provided successful visits to several local public schools to promote oral health. DAN dentists provided presentations on oral hygiene instruction, tooth-brushing advice, dietary advice, as well as Q&A sessions on oral health.

All of the school children also received written oral health advice in the form of colourful and informative leaflets. For the schools for children with special needs, the team provided individual classroom presentations with the help of the wonderful teachers, who able to sign all of the instructions on oral health.

Drilling, filling and chilling!

The mission didn’t involve just dentistry, as the DAN team socialised with as many of the children providing comic relief for a change! Some of the evenings were spent at the KORT complex, where the dentists enjoyed the company of the kids in various recreational activities.

These included games of football, cricket, table-tennis as well as a 100m running race. The British team performed well in the football, however that could not be said for cricket, where the DAN dentists were taught a lesson or two by some very talented youngsters.

The mission ended with a very special ceremony organised by the KORT children at the educational complex, which included speeches, music and a scrumptious BBQ dinner top it all off.

All in all, Project Kashmir 2016 was a very productive and successful mission. The DAN team secured the oral health of over 200 orphans, provided dental treatment for children with special needs and carried out a successful Oral Health Awareness programme for children in the Kashmir.

Dr. Zohaib Khan, BDS (Liverpool) MFDS RCS Ed