Rural Oral Health Services in India

Rural Oral Health Services in India: Focus on OHPF Rajasthan. Oral health is critical to holistic health, but in rural India, including the state of Rajasthan, oral health services are neglected. Rural oral health services are often invisible because of poor services and access, lack of awareness, and poor infrastructure. The Oral Health Promotion Foundation (OHPF) is a not for profit Section 8 company with FCRA registration based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that aims to address these issues by providing Rural Oral Health Services in India and access to oral health care in rural communities.

This article describes the landscape of rural oral health services in India, provides a description of OHPF’s Smile Express mobile dental truck and outreach initiatives for rural communities in Rajasthan, recognizes the context and challenges of rural dental care, and provides suggestions for building rural oral health services through community participation, systems and policy change.

OHPF in Rajasthan: Mobilizing Rural Oral Health Services

Foundation and Vision

The Oral Health Promotion Foundation (OHPF) is a section 8 not for profit registered Dental Health NGO founded in 2016 in Jaipur, Rajasthan. OHPF operates throughout India and aims to improve accessible, science based oral health through education, research and community initiatives. Its vision is “Oral Health for All”. OHPF works with a variety of state and local partners, develops community based plans of action, and provides empowerment support to underrepresented populations.

Smile Express: Mobile Dental Clinics

Smile express is OHPF’s flagship program which operates fully equipped mobile dental vans to provide rural oral health services to villages. We provides delivery of on location oral health examinations, consultations, xray support, prevention & treatment services, and oral hygiene education. Smile express facilitates dental camps with semi electric dental chairs so people living in these villages can receive at least some level of professional dental care.

Community Outreach and Education

OHPF provides educational awareness activities in addition to clinical outreach. Through community and school-based camps and activities OHPF can promote awareness of oral hygiene, screening for oral health issues, provide advice and counseling, tobacco cessation services, and preventive actions. These proactive delivery initiatives augment the demand and awareness for rural oral health services in India.

Results and Impact

Quantitative data from OHPF is limited and available only in public documents. Nonetheless, OHPF has shown its numerous dimensions of impact, through delivering dental screening, preventive counseling and treatment through Smile Express and outreach for cessation of tobacco use. Their broader approach represents an echo of many proven rural interventions, in comparison to the training models for the Anganwadi / ASHA etc in Rajasthan that showed significant improvements in the oral health status of children.

OHPF is helping to narrow the urban-rural divide in oral health, by providing accessible services, helping promote awareness to communities and helping to address change in health behaviours that negatively affect oral health (such as tobacco use).

Challenges Faced in Rural Oral Health Standalone Services

Shortage of human resources: only 3 % of dentists are employed in the government; there are extreme limitations in the rural dental workforce
Limitations in the physical infrastructure: CHCs operate without X-rays etc. and are constantly short on consumables, limiting their work
Low awareness of the service: many in rural communities don’t have knowledge of what public oral services are or don’t see much value in oral health?
Distribution: there is a big urban-rural divide in dental professionals.
Financial and logistical burden: for many the transportation, cost (even if locally available for free) and the opportunity cost that comes for ubiquitous travelling.

Strategic Recommendations

To advance rural oral health services in Rajasthan and beyond, you can consider:

1 Expand the reach of Mobile Dental Clinics

Building on the success of Smile Express and others to reach an even greater number of villages and remote areas, Mobile Dental Clinics can deliver oral health services without any infrastructural barriers, increasing access to care.

2 Training Community Health Workers

Train ASHAs, Anganwadi workers and school teachers in oral health care – this can be done using an array of already established models – they can teach people about prevention and conduct early screening for disease.

3 Strengthening PHC/CHC Oral Health Services

Equip PHC and CHCs with tools (X-rays, consumables and assistants) and manage to ensure there is a reliable supply chain helping inform this part of PHC and CHC ;and, ensure rural and underserved communities are made aware of oral health services available to them.

4 Raise Awareness through Health Promotion Campaigns

Mobilise local media resources, networks, and school programming to get community buy in to issues around oral hygiene, dangers of tobacco, awareness that there are now services available – this can complement OHPF’s current outreach, and IDA Awareness Campaigns.

5 Integrate Policies and Guidelines to include Oral Health

Engaging with the National Health Mission (NHM) platforms to include oral health, incentives for rural dentists, oral health care to be a universal entitlement in health care – similar to Right to Care framework.

6 Public Private Partnerships

Encourage partnerships, such as between the OHPF and government, to ensure coverage is expanded, and that expertise is exchanged while ensuring sustainable delivery of services.

To implement effective rural oral health services in India, the elements of community outreach, skilled human resources, infrastructure and awareness are indispensable. The Oral Health Promotion Foundation (OHPF) of Rajasthan has made significant contributions in this area by way of their Smile Express mobile clinics, educational outreach and partnerships. Combined with successful community models like the Anganwadi and ASHA worker programs, OHPF is an excellent example of forward momentum in this critical space.

Nonetheless, for a holistic impact, public health systems must be given the resources, personnel, and community engagement to effectively address rural oral health. Integrated policy development, innovative approaches such as Smile Express, and community driven awareness can collectively address the rural oral health divide and not only bring oral health to every rural child but also ensure every Indian can wear a healthy smile, no matter where they live!

About OHPF

The Oral Health Promotion Foundation (OHPF) is a prominent not-for-profit organization in India focused on enhancing oral health awareness and promoting better oral hygiene practices across the country. Registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act and with FCRA registration, the foundation operates nationwide and works on various initiatives aimed at improving public oral health and education.

Impact Corner

Year of Experience

Villages Covered

Tobacco Cessation Program

Camps Conducted

Dental Treatment

Dental Screening & Counseling

Gram Panchyat Coverage

Oral Health Promotion Foundation

We are the flag bearer of oral health in rural areas; our main purpose is to provide dental care to every strata of Society without Any barriers of Socioeconomic Status. We acknowledge that Oral Health is an integral Part of general Health and Well Being.

Oral Health Promotion Foundation is Registered Not –For Profit Sec 8 Company which is established in the year 2016. We are committed to improving Oral Public Health by Promoting advanced science-based dentistry that puts the patient at the center through our initiatives in education, research, and development of high standards’ for dental care in India.

We are working on Framework of establishment Of National Level Organization to Collaborate with State and Local Partner to develop Community Based Strategy to Solve Oral Health Issues.

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