Department of Public Health Dentistry, KLE VK Institute of Dental Sciences, Belgaum, Karnataka, India
Online published on 17 December, 2012.
Dentistry faces serious problems regarding accessibility of its services to all. Therefore various community oriented outreach programmes are being held, especially for the rural population. The success of any oral health program depends largely on how it meets the needs and expectations of the target community. So, the present study was designed to evaluate patients need, expectations & satisfaction at a unique oral health care programme in village Ganikop.
A pilot survey was done to access the dental needs of the village population. A comprehensive oral healthcare programme was organised in the village for three days. Two months after the programme, a door to door survey was done. Every alternate house was visited. A self designed questionnaire was used as a survey instrument. 120 out of 200 houses were visited.
Most of the villagers belong to an economically deprived class. Only 13% households have access to dental facilities. 55% households availed the facilities at the free oral healthcare programme. Majority of them (79% households) were benefitted but only 51% were fully satisfied as others felt that the treatment was insufficient.
In a three days programme, complete remedial of all the dental problems of such neglected population could not be expected. Certainly all the immediate dental health concerns were effectively and efficiently taken care off. Furthermore, it is strongly recommended that adequate measures should be taken to promote various prevention strategies, dental auxiliaries for early diagnosis, to minimize the variations in the dentist population ratio for adequate secondary and tertiary level prevention and also to promote public private partnerships for the overall development of such neglected villages.
satisfaction, dentist population ratio, public private partnership, policy reforms, dental camp, inequities
