2.39805 COMMUNITY ORAL HEALTH II

First aid lessons are compulsory, and lead to instruction on how to deal with the most common medical emergencies in PNG, e.g., cardiac arrest, drowning, snakes bite, poisoning, severe trauma, etc..
Students will be taught the Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) Technique for placement of restoration in decayed teeth in remote locations without traditional dental equipment. In preparation for Field exercises in Semester 2 in the final Semester, students will be required to participate in the following projects.
1. Visits to local schools for oral health survey projects, identifying carious teeth and using the ART method of restoration placement at the school, providing DHE and General Health Promotion courses for children, carrying out tooth-brush drills.
2. Visits to rural villages to carry out similar procedures
3. Where possible, arrangements should be made for children requiring more complex dental treatment to be given appointments at the Dental School for this treatment to be carried out, giving students more contact experience with children in the clinical setting
4. Visits to and with Maternal and Child Welfare Nurses to experience the programs currently in place and to provide Oral Health Education to parents relating to the whole family's need for good oral health. Students will be expected to be able to shape pre-formed Thermo-plastic mouth guard materials to comfortably fit a patient's mouth.
At the end of the year, the legal and ethical requirements of Dental Therapists are considered, and an introduction to Forensic Dentistry is provided. The responsibilities of the Dental Profession in relation to the need to assist with identification of individuality by maintaining thorough recording of structural details of dental hard tissues is emphasized.

Course hours: Six hours per week

Assessment: Continuous 60%, Final exam 40%