41st UADS HEALTH WEEK: CODEH REACHES POLYTECHNIC STUDENTS

On 9th May, 2023, the Committee on Dental Education and Health (CODEH) in collaboration with the Press Council of Polytechnic Ibadan, had an outreach to the students of the Polytechnic of Ibadan as part of the celebration of the forty first UADS Health Week. It held at the Polytechnic Ibadan North campus.

Though the outreach was scheduled to start by 9am, it eventually began by 11:33am. Initially there were about 30 participants, but as the outreach progressed more people joined. It started with an oral health education followed by height and weight check, blood pressure, blood glucose level, oral health examination, free oral health talk and lastly scaling and polishing. According to the CODEH Chairman, Mr Paul Ojeniran, the outreach was initially planned to reach a target of 300 students however, about 100 people eventually participated due to the delay in commencement.

As regarding the aim of the outreach the Dentatics press spoke with the chairman of the Press Council, Polytechnic Ibadan in person of Comrade Joshua Adetunji. He stated that his administration recognises that oral health is a salient issue and they also identified a dire need for oral health education and assessment among students of their institution, hence they initiated this outreach program to help students be better informed. He also mentioned that the major challenge faced was the delay in rentals which was responsible for the delay in starting the program early enough.

The Dentatics Press also reached out to a number of volunteers and participants of the outreach to find out their views:

"I had scaling and polishing done and I was very happy with the outcome. Also I have been educated and now I am well informed about my oral health." - Mr Abdulbarr Olalekan

"My expectations for the outreach were met. I had my teeth cleaned and I was educated on good oral health. It was a wholesome experience for me." - Miss Anuoluwapo Olatunji

"The event itself was shorter than I expected. I expected we would start as early as 9am but we started very late and finished by 2pm thereabouts. I would say this outreach was a bit of a different environment from what I'm used to, as there were no subgingival instruments for scaling and polishing for example, so we had to make do with what was available. I will recommend that subsequent outreaches start on time." Mr Iyanuoluwa Akintola

"I believe we were able to project proper dental education and care to the students and I hope that as time goes on they will be more conscious of taking care of their oral cavities. Overall, I believe this CODEH outreach is a good initiative as it is going to foster proper dental care. The only challenge we had was that there was an influx of people towards the end and those people could not be attended to. All in all, I would say this outreach was a success." - Mr Patrick

"I feel personally fulfilled because I believe that as Press Council, our focus shouldn’t just be about journalism, we should focus on things that will benefit our students at large. So I am very happy with the results from today." - Comrade Joshua Adetunji

Notably, this CODEH outreach is the last for the tenure. And speaking about his tenure as CODEH chairman, Mr Paul Ojeniran stated that his committee was focused on schools and this was because schools were being neglected due to a general assumption that they are dentally aware which is not the case. He further stated that “We’ve always been going to the same set of markets for outreaches, rather than do that again, we decided to focus on schools. Therefore, when Comrade Joshua Adetunji reached out to me to plan a dental outreach in Polytechnic Ibadan, we deliberated and concluded that it was a good choice for our health week. And indeed we were able to attend to a lot of the students.” 

In addressing the trend of starting CODEH outreaches late which dates as far back as previous tenures, Mr Paul Ojeniran explained that dental students that volunteer usually arrive late at convergence points, consequently delaying the outreaches. Also, CODEH outreaches are traditionally in partnership with different organizations and these organisations are usually responsible for the logistics but they aren't always punctual. He however apologized for their tardiness in this outreach and expressed gratitude to everyone who has volunteered for CODEH outreaches so far.

The Dentatics Press hopes that dental students continue to turn out in their numbers to give back to underserved communities and that priority is placed on punctuality in subsequent outreaches.

Temiloluwa Adeniyi-Aogo