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My Best Dentists Outreach Program Thika Kenya

Fewer than 1,000 dentists serve the 44 million people of Kenya, from the far reaches of the bush to Nairobi's vast Kibera slum. Dental hygiene is a rarity outside privileged urban regions.   

"In most rural areas, people have to travel long distances to see a dentist," says Stephen Irungu, chief dental officer at Kenya's Ministry of Health and past president of the Rotary Club of Murang'a. "Most of the patients will go to the dental clinic only because they have pain.” 

Cultural norms suggest that “it’s OK if your teeth fall out, if your teeth are broken. They think people are not going to die from it,” says Past District Governor Geeta Manek. 

Yet tooth decay is the most common chronic disease of childhood and a harbinger of health woes in later years, says Karen Sokal-Gutierrez, a physician trained in pediatrics, preventive medicine, and public health with the Joint Medical Program of the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco. “We worry about AIDS and malaria and TB among the world’s poor, but tooth decay is so much more common, ” she says. “Unfortunately, it’s always been neglected,” even as processed and sugared foods proliferate in developing nations.

(06/05/2020) Views: 48
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