Get Rid of Cavities! CGM PMC Visits Keelung Municipal Badou Elementary School to Promote Oral Hygiene _ [CD News]

July 05, 2017

According to the survey from 2012 by the Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare (HPA), and World Health Organization (WHO), the average number of teeth missing, filled or decayed in children at age 12 in Taiwan was 2.5, higher than the average, 1.4, in Japan. Compared to other countries, Taiwanese children have more serious tooth decay problems. Recognizing that oral hygiene must begin at an early age, Christian Gospel Mission's Peace Medical Corp (CGM PMC) and Keelung local dental clinic co-conducted an oral hygiene promotion at Keelung Municipal Badou Elementary School on June, 28th. Among other professionals who had come together to help with the dental hygiene of Taiwanese children, Dr. Lin Ta-Wei, Chairman of Keelung Dental Association was also present at the event to offer suggestions. The school administrators appreciated it very much!

To provide local service, the dental clinic and CGM Peace Medical Corp visited elementary schools to promote oral hygiene with fun activities, hoping to improve the students’ oral health condition and thoroughly prevent them from developing oral diseases. Ms. Teng Hsuan-Ting, the leader of CGM Peace Medical Corp pointed out, “A majority of the kids in Keelung Municipal Badou Elementary School are aborigines and new immigrants, and it takes relatively more guidance and attention to infuse them with the right concept of dental health care. The fact that Peace Medical Corp has diversified healthcare professionals allows us to adopt Occupational Therapy (OT), involving music to help the kids with focussing.” The director the Keelung-based dental clinic said, “Our clinic is a ten-minute’ drive from Keelung Municipal Badou Elementary School, so many students have been here before for treatment. Merely relying on the treatments that are only performed at the clinics will hardly provide us with promising results. At the end of the day, daily life education is what carries a long-lasting effect.”

In order to reduce the children’s fear of oral check-ups, CGM Peace Medical Corp thoughtfully organized fun health education challenge games, including oral hygiene education, dental examinations, etc. The special feature was making use of music elements and focus-training techniques, commonly adopted by occupational therapists, to instruct the children. Through dynamic and static activities, the children could repeatedly implement the knowledge they had obtained, which would also benefit their school performance. The students from Keelung Municipal Badou Elementary School not only learned how to manage their oral hygiene, but they also gained many realizations towards their schoolwork. With the multiple, entertaining oral health promotional activities led by jovial sisterly and brotherly dentists, the children no longer feared visiting the dentist. Instead, they appeared to be even more eager for proper dental hygiene.

( Reporter: SUNG-TAO SU)

Relevant News Links:

Central News Agency News：http://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/Detail/216619.aspx#.WVsVM4iGPIU

PChome Online News：http://news.pchome.com.tw/living/cna/20170704/photo-14991386933858018009.htm

Sina News：http://news.sina.com.tw/article/20170704/22921224.html

Referenced: CDNews: http://www.cdnews.com.tw/cdnews_site/docDetail.jsp?coluid=108&docid=104234493