Seven dental vans flagged off, to help kids without facilities

Jaipur: Seven dental vans were flagged off for helping children who do not have access to quality dental care in Jaipur on Monday.

The seven dental vans flagged off by health minister Kalicharan Saraf will be deployed at each of the seven divisions— Bharatpur, Bikaner, Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ajmer and Kota.

Saraf said that these vans will visit those areas where the facility for treatment of dental problems is not available.

There are 78,000 children identified by the state government who need treatment for dental problems. The dental vans have been launched under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK). The health workers had visited schools, anganwadis and madrasas for early detection and management of defects at birth, diseases in children, deficiency conditions and developmental delays including disabilities.

During the screening, the health workers have identified 78,000 such children with dental problems. A health department official said there are private players who will provide dental care facilities to children and the private players will be paid for their services on the rates fixed for different procedures.

He said that dental van project under RBSK is the first in the country. Children who have dental caries and also those children needing scaling and tooth extraction will be benefitted from the dental van project.

A government-hospital dentist, Dr Rajiv Sharma said that the dental vans are equipped with X-ray facility. The X-ray will be conducted and it will appear on laptop screen. It will help the doctors for diagnoses of the disease. Moreover, there are equipment for keeping tools sterile for preventing infections including UV chamber and autoclaving equipment. It has power generator for functioning of AC and other equipment.

Also, it has global positioning system and CCTV camera for surveillance. Two dentists, one technician, one helper, one driver and one other staff would remain present in the dental van.