Children from an orphanage in Nakuru Town West and residents of Kapkures Ward benefit from free dental services offered by the Oral Health Officers Association of Kenya.
The free clinic was held at Mission in Action Children’s Home where the minors received gift packs full of dental hygiene items such as toothbrushes, tooth pastes and dental floss.
The Association President, Dr Alex Langat said the clinic was part of their 29th National Annual Conference for Dentists which takes four days of activities including giving back to society through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
He commended oral health officers for their services to the nation in their different capacities in public and private hospitals.
Langat said each year in November, the association members meet for their Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference with experts for continuous medical education where exchange and share experiences of how they handle and treat their cases for their improvement.
He added that members also have sittings to discuss in-house issues and their welfare as dentists in the rank of oral health officers in Kenya.
He said most of the dental problems diagnosed during the clinic are among the common ones in the country such as fluorosis which is caused by drinking consuming borehole water with high levels of fluorine.
“Browning of the teeth starts at a very early age, sometimes even at conception and the developmental stages because of ingestion of affected water by the pregnant mothers,” said Langat.
He said the Nakuru County Government was looking into ways of reducing fluoride contents in the water and has employed many officers to analyse borehole water before passing it as fit for consumption.
“Water boreholes with very high fluoride levels are condemned for the sake of the society and posterity of dental health,” he said.
The medic added that the problem starts between age zero to 12 years after which the body gains a mechanism to filter out the excess fluoride in water.
He said the other problems detected were teeth cavities and decay and attributed it to poor dental hygiene among the people.
“There were also a few cases of gum problems among the close to 100 patients that were treated today,” said Langat who is also the majority leader at the Nakuru County Assembly and the MCA for Mosop ward in Rongai Sub-County.
The association Vice President, Beatrice Achieng said the medics were supported by different organisations including Glaxo SmithKline Kenya, Afrodent and Ultradent.