CATEGORY 124 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST DENTISTRY AROUND THE WORLD Gabriella Schmidt-Corsitto from Switzerland is a true expatriate enthusiast in Mongolia. Her husband, an aid expert and ecologist, was assigned to work on reforestation in barren Mongolia, and Gabriella Schmidt- Corsitto went along. As a trained dental hygienist, she soon set up the organization Misheel Kids Foundation and began working to improve dental health among Mongolian children. There is no doubt that it is needed. A survey by the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) showed a few years ago that children and adults in Mongolia have the highest number of cavities per capita in the world. I quickly saw what a disaster they were in, says Gabriella Schmidt-Corsitto when we meet her on a chilly March day in downtown Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. Misheel Kids Foundation began working with orphanages, where they began providing dental health education, serving healthy traditional Mongolian food, and in other ways contributing to improving the children’s situation. Later, they set up their own school and afterschool center, “Bayasgalant” (which translates as “happy”). We visit the center, which is located in the suburbs of Ulaanbaatar. All around, Most cavities per capita Mongolia has the world’s largest tooth decay problem By JOAKIM RÅDSTRÖM It is considered one of the countries in the world with the biggest problem of caries. Little-known, desolate Mongolia has a major challenge when it comes to dental health. Among the explanations is the rapid transition from traditional nomadic life to a sugar-fueled consumer society. in what can be described as a Mongolian slum, are blocks after blocks of traditional tents erected – what in English is usually called yurts and which Mongolians refer to as gers. In the absence of a sewage system, people have dug pit latrines surrounded by outbuilding walls, and in the absence of central heating, they are heated with smoky brown coal boilers. The whole country depends on lignite. In some places it is everywhere, in the form of huge mines. Already in early November, and then until February, there is terrible smog here, says Gabriella Schmidt- Corsitto. Mongolia also has significant problems with urban migration. Including natural birth rates and rural migration, Ulaanbaatar is currently growing by six people an hour – or 5,000 people a month. This in a country that only accommodates three million people in total, in an area slightly smaller than Queensland. Urbanization, which is already very noticeable in many other parts of the world, is thus taking place in Mongolia at an even faster pace. In parallel, there is a change in traditions and old customs at record speed. This not only affects the more superficial aspects of Mongolian culture – even profound and important routines in social life are affected. This applies not least to food and dental health. Twenty-five years ago there was hardly any sugar here at all. Most Mongolians are nomads, and their natural diet is almost sugar-free. But they also lack education in dental care, and when sugar and junk food arrived, they were not prepared, says Gabriella Schmidt- Corsitto. The connections are not clear enough from a visit to the westernized Ulaanbaatar (which is home to 45 percent of Mongolia’s population). Instead, visitors to Mongolia must go out into the countryside, where the true soul of the country is found. Here, among traditional herders and large herds of cows, sheep and goats, there is a deep and inherited knowledge about the interaction between humans and nature, about traditional health and about the factors that make up a long-term sustainable lifestyle. As Mongolians move into the big city, congestion, environmental pollution,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTc3NDk3Mw==