FLANKER, St James — Students and staff at the Flankers Primary and Junior High School have expressed appreciation for the recent free dental clinic held at the institution, which was made possible by the Key Club of Fairfield in collaboration with Happy Smiles Dental Services, as part of activities to mark October’s Oral Health Awareness Month.

Over 100 students benefited from the initiative which included the distribution of gift packages containing toys, hand sanitisers and children’s vitamins. The packages were made possible by Bioprist Pharmaceuticals and Indies Pharma.

“The students are happy, the teachers are happy and, by extension, the community is happy. So I want to say a big thank you to them. And, I welcome them to come again. And I look forward to more partnerships from other companies within our community,” stated Principal Collette Barnes.

Barnes said apart from her academic staff, parents and guardians had also bought into the initiative.

“I want to tell you that when I sent it out in my parents’ group, the response that I got was that we had over 250 parents who indicated that they wanted their students to be a part of it. You know, sorry, we only had space for 100 students. So, they’re really happy and what I’ve got is also that they are now aware because videos were shown to the students,” stated Barnes.

Grade 5R student Christopher Green, who wants to be a soldier, was among those who got a dental examination.

“I learned how to keep my teeth clean and when they were checking my teeth, my heart was beating because I was afraid seh dem did gwine pull out one ah fi mi teet,” said Green, adding that “I would tell my classmates not to be afraid and to get their check-up.”

Happy Smiles Dental Services dentist Dr Rekha Advani argued that “sometimes they look at a dentist and they think it’s going to be painful. So, I try to be nice, talk to them and tell them that a dentist is not all about pain. They [dentists] help to give you a beautiful smile. So, the initiative is to encourage them to take care of their hygiene so they can have beautiful smiles and confidence in themselves.”

Happy Smiles Dental Services director Sunil Advani noted that the practice, which is based in the Whitter Village, Ironshore, closed its doors and went into the school.

“We want to educate kids, especially in the school because that’s the time when their mouth and teeth grow and they need to be aware of…you don’t want any cavities and other stuff to come. So, we like to educate them about how to do cleaning and other stuff. How to take care of their oral hygiene which is very, very important and critical. So, we thought school was the best place to do so,” explained Sunil.

To make the venture possible, Sunil had reached out to Fairfield International Academy (FIA) and Flankers Primary and Junior High School.

Besides conducting dental examinations, Sunil said, “We have a little video presentation which is about 10 minutes long. It educates them about the mouth, oral cavities and how to brush and how to take care of it, flossing and other stuff; all those things, we educate them from that aspect.”

“There are concerns because a lot of kids that we are seeing here, they basically need to see a dentist in some way or the other,” he added, pointing out that each child is given a status card to take home to their parents.

Teacher at FIA and faculty advisor for Key Club— a student-led service organisation — Jodi-Gay Cummings said eight students from the high school section of the institution and two teachers participated in the initiative.

“So it’s an organised group of students and they wanted to get involved just because they love service. And, they see that if they do something and it can benefit other persons, why not? So, that is what actually got us involved in this initiative. We saw the need and we were invited and we jumped on board,” she explained.

FIA grade 11 student and president of Key Club Girdhar Chuganey said, “I think this is a great opportunity for our Key Club as we can gain this experience and also help educate all these students about dental health and basic hygiene that they should know and bring this into their lifestyle which could greatly impact their health in a really good way.”