Community Dental Centre

After assessing the current oral health care system in India, IDA Foundation found profound and enduring oral health disparities . Access is hampered by a variety of socio-economic, demographic, cultural, economic, structural, and geographic factors which contribute to people's decisions to forgo dental care. Many children also do not receive needed dental care because their families cannot not afford it.

IDA introduced Community Dental Center (CDC) to improve oral health care for vulnerable and under served individuals — including racial and ethnic minorities, people with special health care needs, older adults, pregnant women, populations of lower socioeconomic status, and rural populations, among others. As you are aware that oral health is a critical component of health and well-being.

Oral diseases are the commonest chronic diseases and are amongst the most expensive diseases to treat. Therefore CDC delivers oral health care to remote and low-income communities to help prevent oral disease before it starts and reduce the number of adults and children with untreated dental disease. The most effective way to ensure optimal oral health is to prevent oral disease before it starts.

The aim is to improve access to dental services and improve oral health of children and adults by the following measures:

• Increase access to oral healthcare;
• Provide oral healthcare services ;
• Increase utilization of services ;
• Serve children, senior citizens and others without access to oral health care;
• Improve oral health outcomes;
• Improve oral health literacy ;
• Reduce barriers to accessing care ;
• Raise awareness about oral health ;
• Build networks of oral health partners in communities;
• Implement and evaluate activities that have an impact on oral health behavior;
• Promote interventions to reduce tooth decay, such as dental sealants and fluoride use;
• Evaluate and improve methods of monitoring oral diseases and conditions;
• Increase the capacity of oral health programs to provide preventive oral health services;
• Increase the number of community health centers with an oral health component.