Dental Program

Dental Training Programs

Prevention programs began during 1996 in Tolgaz Bulak, a village near Bishkek, by examining elementary school children, finding an average of 15 cavity surfaces per child. Secondary school students were trained to teach younger children tooth-brushing and rinsing with NaF solutions. Over four years, the incidence of new dental caries has decreased 30%. Clinical treatment is not available in the village.

Dental education in the dental school is being supplemented by seminars, curriculum development, academic exchanges and a scholarship program for six students to learn in the STLI general dental clinic (see below). Both dental education and dental care are no longer provided under government programs, as they were in Soviet times.

Post-graduate dental education was begun with a year-long clinical training program in general dentistry, in the post-graduate medical education institute of Kyrgyzstan. The Soviet system of all specialized dentists working in centralized polyclinics is no longer affordable. The government no longer providing dental care for its citizens, is promoting development of general practice dentistry in private clinics. The need is great for re-training of dental specialists into general dentistry. Graduates of the STLI year-long clinical training program will be certified by the Ministry of Health in general denstistry. Taught also are hygienists and technicians for work in general practice clinics. The program models a private clinic general practice, with graduates able to teach other dentists expanding the supply of general practice dental service.

An additional emphasis is service to the poor who cannot afford dental care, a large segment of the population.

April 7, 2010