GREAT BAY, Sint Maarten (DCOMM) – Community dental care will be available from the mobile dental bus on Tuesday, February 13 from 2.00pm to 4.30pm at the Vineyard Office Park in Philipsburg where Collective Prevention Services (CPS), a department within the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour (Ministry VSA), is located.
Dentist Hilda Guevara will be volunteering her tie to carry out the consultations.
Dental caries is a major public health problem globally and is the most widespread noncommunicable disease (NCD), according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
It is also the most prevalent condition included in the 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study, ranking first for decay of permanent teeth (2.3 billion people) and 12th for deciduous teeth (560 million children).
Dental caries can be prevented by avoiding dietary free sugars. Moreover, dental caries is largely preventable through simple and cost-effective population-wide and individual interventions, whereas treatment is costly, and is often unavailable in low- and middle-income countries.
In low-income countries, the majority of dental caries goes untreated. Teeth affected by caries are often extracted (pulled out) when they cause pain or discomfort.
Severe dental caries can impair quality of life. For example, dental caries may cause difficulties in eating and sleeping, and in its advanced stages (abscesses), it may result in pain and chronic systemic infection.
Dental caries is also associated with adverse growth patterns. Further, tooth decay is a frequent cause of absence from school or work.
Use the opportunity on Tuesday to get your teeth checked.
