The Planters’ Association of Ceylon said last week that an islandwide programme has been launched to provide free dental treatment for families living in Regional Plantation Company (RPC) estates.
The programme on ‘Improving Dental Hygiene of Children and Adults in the Estate Sector,’ focuses mainly on children and is implemented by the Plantation Human Development Trust (PHDT). Developed by Dr. V. Vijayakumaran, the Head of the Paediatric Dentistry at the Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya.
“The programme has had a very good response since we started it as a pilot programme in December 2009. In fact, the response is so good we are actually finding it difficult to cope with the demand,” said Director of Health and Women’s Programmes at the PHDT, Dr Ravi Nanayakkara in a statement issued by the RPC.
“Estate communities fully appreciate the programme because dental health facilities are more difficult to access in plantation areas than other health facilities.”
Oral health standards among Sri Lanka’s estate communities are lower than in other parts of the country. This is mainly because estates find it difficult to attract qualified dental practitioners to work full time in estates.
The lower earning potential for dental practitioners and lack of facilities for the provision of dental treatment, are the main reasons. Therefore, the current dental programme responds to a pressing need in the estate sector, the statement said.
The dental programme initially targeted three RPC estates each, in the five regions of Hatton, Badulla, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy and Ratnapura. It will now gradually be extended to cover the entire formal plantation sector including the regions of, Kegalle and Galle. The free dental clinics includes the provision of dental examinations and medical treatment.
The clinics are conducted on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and are able to accommodate around 100 persons per day. Many of those coming for dental attention are children between the ages of 5 – 16 years. |
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