The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC)’s Preventive Health Directorate, in partnership with Al Noor Center for the Blind, has carried out the Asnani Program to promote oral and dental health, led by Dr. Najat Al-Yafei, Manager of Preventive and Promotive Oral and Dental Health, and supervised by Dr. Hamad Al Mudahka, Executive Director of Preventive Health Directorate. PHCC aims to provide extra care for persons with special needs and to instruct them on how to look after their oral and dental health.

Activities included oral health education lecture by Dr. Sohair Dalol, as well as teaching visually impaired students proper brushing technique by a dental team by demonstration on large dental model to develop their skills in maintaining oral hygiene. This was followed by dental screening with the focus on identification oral diseases in their early stages and referral/advise for parents to seek dental treatment for oral diseases identified conducted by the team.

The Mobile Dental Unit screened 32 students aged 3 to 13 years. 12 students (30%) were confirmed to be teeth decay-free. The remaining 69% of kids had three or more decaying teeth on average. In addition, 20 students underwent fluoride varnish treatment as a preventive measure. The majority of the students required some type of dental care, such as professional teeth cleaning, filling of decaying teeth, or removal of some overly retained milk teeth. Parents were given information papers recommending them to get dental treatment for their children.

The PHCC in collaboration with Al Noor Center had made significant progress in developing Braille Oral Health Educational Material on a variety of topics such as brushing technique, fluoride varnish, oral hygiene tools, and the importance of saliva, which will be extremely useful in educating and empowering visually impaired students to maintain good oral hygiene.