His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, has launched today (Monday) at the Ministry Headquarters the Mobile Dental Clinics, which have recently been provided in activation of the National Initiative for Dental Caries Prevention in School-Aged Children.
This initiative has been implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Education (MOE), to reduce the dental caries among school-aged children and to boost the oral and dental health behaviors, within the framework of the initiatives to develop primary healthcare and to promote oral health in the community, especially among schoolchildren.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has provided 200 mobile clinics, which are currently being distributed to regions and governorates. These clinics will be run by preventive dental teams through schools, malls, and leisure and entertainment areas for oral and dental examinations and for topical fluoride application to help prevent tooth decay.
It is noted that this initiative has been launched in the end of 2016 as a pilot phase in three regions, and then it has gradually been expanded to include all regions and governorates.
It is worth mentioning that, over the past year (2018), this initiative achieved remarkable success and progress, with 5,336 schools applying the initiative, raising awareness among 108,4452 students, in addition to checking 445,653 students in first primary grades. Also, this initiative trained 732,953 school children were trained to use the toothbrush in the proper way, as well as applying fluoride to 441,522 children.