Saudi acts to combat kids’ caries

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Schools will be visited on a rotational basis by the travelling clinics.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MoH) is waging war on the Kingdom's huge caries count with the introduction of 50 portable dental clinics.

The clinics will visit schools across Saudi throughout the coming academic year, as part of a pilot project giving children and communities improved access to dentists and oral hygiene staff.

Consisting of a portable dental chair and basic treatment centre, each ‘clinic' costs around US$8,000 and will be manned by existing government dentists on a rotational basis.

"We will enrol government dentists from local hospitals and clinics where they are a little overstaffed and they will go to work in these clinics for maybe two days a week," said the MoH's director of dental affairs, Dr Mohammed Al-Rafee.

"We will mostly pick from what we have, though we may have to recruit a few more hygienists for the scheme."

He added that the initiative will not necessarily be restricted to schools in the smaller towns, and may be opened to the wider community.

"We want to promote a preventative approach to oral care and provide education on dental hygiene to the community.

"While the focus will be on the schools, the clinics can be taken to shopping centres and community areas where there are children."

The pilot scheme will run until next June, when the project's success will be assessed and a decision will be taken as to whether to purchase more of the portable clinics.

The move was welcomed by local dental professionals, who expressed their support for the MoH's new initiative.

"I think it is wonderful news. The caries count is horrendous here in Saudi Arabia and desperately needs addressing," said Louise Adam, a hygienist working at the Sigal Dental Clinic based in Riyadh.

"Something like this should have been done a long time ago, but it is better late than never. There is so little education about oral health for children.

"Hopefully, it will lead to school dental clinics."

The clinics will not be assigned specific treatment targets, Rafee said, adding that the Ministry is realistic in its outlook towards the caries problem.

"It is not something that will be cured overnight. At the moment it is a case of finding out how big the problem actually is and how much resource we have.

"Eradicating caries totally is just not possible, but we want to reduce it dramatically."

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