UWI clinic partners with NGO Community Chest Limited
Children with special needs in Trinidad and Tobago can now be treated for free at The UWI Special Needs Dental Clinic. The treatment centre, based at the School of Dentistry in UWI St Augustine’s Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS), recently received a generous donation of $90,000 from non-governmental organisation Community Chest Limited (CCL).
“This purposeful collaboration,” said Dr Ramaa Balkaran, Lecturer in Special Needs Dentistry at the FMS, “would improve the quality of life of this population through dental care.”
Special needs dentistry modifies treatment by promoting preventative dentistry and changes in routine dental care adapted to the specific needs of patients. Dr Balkaran said she hoped the initiative “would be sustainable and could also be extended to the adult population through future partnerships with the CCL and other NGOs”.
A representative of CCL explained that the NGO’s board recognised that there was a need for dental care for children with special needs. It was then that they discovered there was an existing specialised dental clinic that was able to provide treatment. Poor oral health is linked to other general health issues, and people with special needs often have both oral and systemic diseases. Dental treatment can be costly and, although The UWI Dental School offers highly subsidised prices, the service may still not be affordable to those who access government grants.
Director of the School of Dentistry Dr William Smith hopes that The UWI Special Needs Dental Clinic can create additional partnerships with various NGOs to promote oral health in the special needs population.
“Such collaborative initiatives would increase access to a conscious sedation service at UWI/NCRHA clinic, provide general anaesthesia in a timely manner, and have restorative and urgent treatment completed at no, or reduced, costs through private/corporate UWI partnerships,” said Dr Smith.
He added that “another goal is the provision of a dental mobile unit accessible to patients with special needs that have mobility issues or who live in rural communities”.
Parents of children (under the age of 18) with special needs can book the appointments at the dental clinic. The clinical days are currently on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, as well as all day on Friday. For further information, contact The UWI Dental School, Special Needs Dental Clinic at 645-3232, extension 4038; 645-7816; or 645-4352.
