Smile Society Visit to Oasis Academy Johanna
On Thursday, a group of our members spent the morning in Oasis Academy Johanna teaching the children about the importance of their oral health and the role of the dentist. After a long exam season for all students, it was so exciting to finally get back into the swing of things with our community outreach.
At Smile Society, our primary focus is highlighting the importance of oral hygiene and healthy living to the younger generations, and we feel there is no better way to do this than a face-to-face demonstration from enthusiastic dental students who are genuinely interested in early prevention of dental disease. We love using the power of education to show children why they need to keep their teeth clean, and why teeth are nothing to be afraid of.
Dental phobia is a worryingly common and ultimately destructive phenomenon which drives dental patients to skip appointments, avoid treatment and suffer pain and tooth loss. The good news is that it is very easily avoidable with the correct exposure and introduction to the dentist, which is why we endeavour to teach children from an early age that we are indeed friendly individuals. One less dental phobic person in the world can lead to one happier and healthier smile.
It was so great to see volunteers from BDS1-3 coming to teach the school year 4 and 6 children about their diet and tooth brushing techniques. The BDS1 students especially caught our eye with their exceptional oral hygiene instruction. In order to teach the circular brushing motion, they asked the children to stick out their arms and make small circles, which really engaged the group and will hopefully keep them remembering the good technique for years to come.
A huge thanks goes out to our volunteers from Wednesday: Goh Jia Ying, Tanisha Kaulsay, Tanaya Kirtikar, Caren Sohal, Jenna Shah, Bo Yi, Sara Najim, Sidra Bilal and Morgan Rees. A special thank you also goes out to our supervising dentist Meena Kumar. You can find some photos from the event below.
We invite all members to consider joining our future events as they provide excellent and early experience for paediatric dentistry rapport, and look very pro-active on your CV. We hope to have more events available for you soon.
