Siblings Jaxzon and Elias are with oral health student Nakyung Kim at The Family Oral Health Programme.
An oral healthcare programme at the University of Otago's School of Dentistry is taking a family approach.
The Carisbrook Family Oral Health Programme has invited whānau from Carisbrook Primary School to free consultations at the University of Otago's Dental School.
Dr Lisa Ung-Hanson, a Professional Practice Fellow with the Department of Oral Rehabilitation, is running the clinics with a team of students and clinicians. She says the concept is to do oral health care as a family.
“Families with young children have parents and caregivers who are struggling with their own oral health, supporting them will help our next generation of tamariki with the ongoing knowledge, experiences and healthy culture passed down.”
The initiative started with visits by Dr Ung-Hanson and some Oral Health students to children in the Year 0-2 class at Carisbrook School.
Carisbrook School Teacher Tania Hodges said the school is incredibly grateful to be part of the programme:
“Lisa and her team provided a fun and informative lesson for our Year 0-2 students on dental care. Our students learnt the importance of 'loving their teeth' and keeping them healthy and strong.
“We also had a lot of interest from families to take up Lisa's offer of a free check-up for their tamariki at the dental school, with an emphasis on working with the family.”
The students' families were invited to see the team at the dental school for a free check-up, and oral health advice. The project also has some capacity to provide urgent treatment if that's required. So far, five families have attended and 11 more have bookings in November.
The Sinton and McInnes family visited on 2 November. Jaxzon McInnes remembered the team from his class visit. He was joined by three older siblings and his Mum who all received check-ups and talked with the Otago team about how they can all care for their oral health.
This family oral health programme received a Mars Wrigley Foundation New Zealand Dental Association Community Service Grants 2022. This is the first year the programme has been run, and Dr Ung-Hanson hopes to expand it in the future.
Dr Ung-Hanson left private dental practice to join the team at Otago and focus on public and paediatric oral health. She was also one of the organisers of this year's Sunday dental clinics, providing free dental care to adults suffering from chronic oral health neglect, referred from Dunedin's free health care clinic, Servants Health Centre.
- Kōrero by Antonia Wallace Communications Adviser (Health Sciences)