Taiwan IHA at AMDA Peace Clinic for free dental clinic, Bodhgaya, India Oct 2015
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Since last October AMDA has been conducting mother and childcare clinic free of charge for the people of Mastipur where AMDA Peace Clinic (APC) is located. A special clinic with a gynaecologist is conducted twice a month at APC.
On the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of October AMDA conducted a free dental camp with the help of TaiwanIHA who sent a team of three to Bodhgaya consisting a dentist, dental therapist and a coordinator for this mission. Gaya Rotary and Rotaract clubs lend a helping hand in carrying out this clinic and the president of Bodhgaya Lions Club participated as the main local dental surgeon and provided enough of his valuable time for this important mission.
Since APC runs a mother and childcare clinic regularly we have decided to allocate the first day of the dental camp only for the pregnant ladies and young mothers with toddlers. The dentist from Taiwan worked hard along with local dentist and consulted over 30 patients on the first day. Most of the cases were filling, scaling and cleaning.
Second day of the clinic was dedicated for the school children of the area and more than 100 students gathered at the Isshinji Temple adjacent to APC. Taiwan team provided a verbal dental hygiene education for the children followed by a video presentation with the help of multimedia projector. The children`s eye were glue to the screen and really enjoyed the informative video. After the video the Taiwan team checked each and every student and noted the condition of the student`s teeth with the support of Taiwan members and APC staff. This recorded information will be very useful for APC to conduct such mission for the children in this area.
In the afternoon of the second day and full day third day was allocated for the general public. APC was inundated with people wanting dental care. Both dentists worked together side by side to provide the much-needed service for the first time in Mastipur area. Almost all people visited the clinic had never been to a dentist their lifetime. It was very apparent that their awareness about dental care was next to nothing. Most of the patients refused for extraction even though their tooth has badly decayed. According to the local doctor and the village leader there is a great need for regular clinic and education to make awareness of dental care among the people.
Rotary Club vice president made a visit to the clinic all three days to see and give a hand when needed. APC staff worked hard and really enjoyed providing this great service to the poor people with the support of Taiwan team.
As usual, not new to Bodhgaya, there were many power cuts during the 3 days mission and the doctors overcame the problem by working with hand-held emergency lights and generator. Though majority of the patients were in the age group of 20-30, we had people aging from 6 till 70.
As part of the mission our team also visited an orphanage with 70 children in a small village about 5km away from APC and conducted dental education session followed by distribution of dental care set. In fact every patients and students visited the camp also received the dental care set comprising toothpaste, toothbrush and tongue cleaner.
The 3 days camp was very successful and the ward councillor of Mastipur Village, Schools and orphanages, Gaya Rotary and Rotaract Clubs and Bodhgaya Lions Club all appreciated AMDA for organizing this much-needed service to the community.
*AMDA India is serving as an advisor to APC.
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Publication date: 2015-10-06
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