CATEGORY AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST117 DENTISTRY AROUND THE WORLD JOAKIM RÅDSTRÖM, Freelance journalist Website: www.joakimradstrom.com Email: freelance@joakimradstrom.com Phone: +46-(0)73-656 76 17 malpractice to have their problems xed free of charge. at’s how Virginia Della Yolanda came to Medikids. We make a selection, where we ask the a ected person to explain the reason why he or she is coming to us. en they send in photos of their teeth, and then we o er them to take care of their teeth for free, says Muna Ali. Information and outreach work in the eld of dental health is close to Muna Ali’s heart. In addition to her involvement in KorTuGi, she has, for example, decorated the Medikids clinics in bright colors with di erent playrooms to reduce anxiety about dental visits among children. One of the rooms is reminiscent of an airplane. In another, her own children play with some friends over a mannequin in a pretend dentist’s chair. e doll gapes wide and expresses no displeasure about the day’s treatment. To x Della’s mistreated teeth, the dentists applied a desensitizing agent, and then a lling to cover the exposed dentin. But if the nerves are already damaged, we may need to x the root canals rst, says Muna Ali. I have a few such patients with similar experiences to Della, who are also victims of street dentists and have been referred to us from KorTuGi. But their cases are worse than Della’s. rough the professional treatment at Medikids, Della’s crooked teeth were xed and new veneers were applied using professional methods. e di erence in care was signi cant. At the street dentists, they only cared about the teeth, while the dentist here was interested in the whole health. ey performed the aesthetic procedures, but rst they cleaned the teeth and analyzed the overall health, says Virginia Della Yolanda. Della’s teeth are still a little sensitive, but not at all like after the bad treatment at the street dentists. e veneers sit rmly against the teeth and have a shade that she is happy with. At the same time, she is upset about the many serious mistakes that were made by the unquali ed dentists. If we don’t do anything to educate people, more people could be misled about cosmetic treatments like this, Muna Ali believes. e Indonesian state approves that tukang gigis makes dentures and fake teeth, but most of the time they also perform other tasks. Many people do llings, extractions, veneers, orthodontics and other things. And then it’s not in a gray area; then it’s illegal, says Muna Ali. Virginia Della Yolanda did not report the malpractice to the police. However, Muna Ali believes that other patients who have experienced even more serious side e ects do just that, to contribute to stopping the dangerous tradition. e risks of going to a street dentist are signi cant, as many extractions and treatments are performed with unsterilized tools or inappropriate techniques by unquali ed personnel. Infections and other complications are common, and even deaths occur at regular intervals. Malaysian health authorities warn that HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B, for example, can be spread through the unhygienic conditions of street dentists’ o ces, and that improper treatment can lead to permanent nerve damage. By never visiting a quali ed dentist, you also risk missing out on serious oral health problems, such as a predisposition to oral cancer. e problem particularly a ects poor and vulnerable groups, who often cannot a ord to visit authorized dental clinics. Another reason to seek out a tukang gigi is the lack of licensed dentists. Studies have shown that the number of inhabitants per licensed dentist in Indonesia is around 17,000. e corresponding gure in Australia is around 1,600, in other words almost eleven times better. u Doctor Muna Ali Doctor Muna Ali and Virginia Della Yolanda
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTc3NDk3Mw==