Talks by experts, street play, free treatment and activities to make the people aware about oral hygiene marked the Oral Health Day celebrated at a special camp organised by Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) at Palaspur on the outskirts of the capital city last week.

The camp was jointly organised by the department of public health dentistry of Institute of Dental Sciences (IDS), SOA’s faculty of dental sciences, and the university’s NSS wing. Around 500 people availed free oral health screening and treatment.

World Oral Health Day is observed globally on March 20 every year. Students of IDS, under the guidance of the Dean of the institute Prof. Neeta Mohanty, participated in a separate 10-day-long campaign by providing oral health tips to the people and distributing leaflets on the subject. 

A professionally directed, highly entertaining yet educational street play on oral health and its importance was presented by the students which focused on the ill effects of use of tobacco, gutkha, cigarette and such related products. Dr. Upasana Dhar and Dr. Marlin Jena, two Post-Graduate students of the department of public health dentistry, delivered talks on oral care while the NSS Coordinator Prof. Nachieketa Sharma outlined the importance and activities of NSS.

A street play on oral health was enacted by the ‘Nukkad’ team of IDS while Dr. Radha Dalei and Dr. Sudipta were felicitated on the occasion.

The campaign concluded with senior faculties of IDS participating in a radio talk broadcast over 90.4 FM Voice of SOA Community which featured Dr. Swagatika Panda, Dr. Saurav Panda and Dr. Anurag Satpathy. Dr. Satyaranjan Mishra and Dr. Swagatika Panda also featured in a TV show telecast on a local news channel on the subject ‘A healthy mouth for a healthy body’ on March 20.

IDS is the only dental institute chosen to be a Cochrane Affiliate Centre in eastern India for disseminating evidence based information for the benefit of general public, Prof. Mohanty said.