Dental Surgeons Association of India (Punjab)
With
Bhai Baldeep Singh, Chairman, The Anad Foundation
Amritsar
March 22, 2015

Dental Surgeons Association of India (Punjab) along with socio-political activist, Bhai Baldeep Singh, Chairman, The Anad Foundation on the occasion of World Oral Health Day announces Punjab Oral-Health Care and Welfare Initiatives (Punj-Care Initiatives).

Giving final touches to the press release.

As a result of ever increasing Oral Health problems and lack of awareness among people, the Dental Surgeons Associations of India (Punjab) and Bhai Baldeep Singh, Founder Chairman, The Anad Foundation, have come together to provide quality care to the poor and underserved. We are announcing a statewide dental health initiative under which camps will be arranged once every month in each one of the 22 districts of Punjab, respectively.

Under Punj-Care Initiatives, the association plans to set up dental health clinics in every district in collaboration with already established DSAI member Dental Clinics and NGO’s in Punjab.

The DSAI (Punjab) and the Anad Foundation will begin a fundraising campaign to sponsor Mobile Dental Clinics (MDC) equipped with advanced dental setups. These MDC’s will ply in remote areas of Punjab reaching out to the underserved with nil or very little access to health care facilities. As part of this initiative to extend oral healthcare to the remote areas of Punjab we will be tying up with various Dental Colleges in the state. Such a tie-up will benefit not only the healthcare needy around the state but also benefit the doctors and interns by way of supplementing their respective case studies and field research. Each MDC will have up to four chambers with dental setups and one for a general physician.

We shall also provide Oral Health Care to religious leaders such as Qazis, Mullahs, Qawwals, Pandits, Christian Priests, Sikh Ragis, Kathakars, Granthis, Dhadhis as well as folk and Indian Classical music exponents on cost-to-cost basis or gratis, in collaboration with their respective parent institutions whenever necessary. This initiative is bound to help create more awareness about Oral Health among the general public.

An Oral Health Helpline and a dedicated website are also in the pipeline, which once installed will enable patients to directly get in touch with the doctors. The helpline will allow the patients to register and take appointments at their own convenience. The website shall have regular updates about the Punj-Care Initiatives.  We also plan to reach out to the people of Punjab through Social Media.

The press conference.

Pensioners living below the poverty line would be given free dentures by the association while schools and educational institutions would be targeted to raise awareness regarding oral healthcare problems in children and adolescents. Owing to an alarming increase in number of patients suffering from Oral Cancers, the Punj-Care offers to organize talks and discussions across the state to raise awareness and discourage people from taking drugs and alcohol, which are the major culprits behind various forms of oral cancer. Punj-Care will encourage dental surgeons across the state to use quality restorative materials and to certainly not to use cheap restorative materials which are known to be harmful and even carcinogenic.

Bhai Baldeep Singh, Chairman, The Anad Foundation was present along with DSAI (Punjab) members Dr. Saurav Arora (State coordinator), Dr. Karandeep Singh (State Coordinator), Dr. Harmanpreet Singh, Dr. Akash Bhagat, Dr. Rajinderpal Singh, Dr. Neha Bharadwaj, Dr. Ravneet Dhingra, Jagjit Singh, Punjab Singh Kahlon, S. Ram Kaur Khalsa and others.