The Chennai Corporation on Friday kickstarted a drive to intensify delivery of dental health services free of cost across the city. Inaugurating a dental clinic on C.P. Ramasamy Road in Alwarpet, Mayor Saidai Duraisamy said 26 dentists have joined the civic body in addition to the four dentists in dental clinics of the Chennai Corporation. Ten more such clinics will be opened in the coming days.
The dental clinics will remain open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Modern equipment has been procured to facilitate free treatment.
Equipment suitable for root canal treatment and tooth extraction has been procured. More modernised facilities will be commissioned later.
The other clinics will be commissioned at Thalankuppam Bazar Street, Kathivakkam; Kannabiran Koil Street, Madhavaram; Elango Nagar, Ganesapuram, Vysarpadi; Paper Mills Road, Sembium; Station Road, Varadharajapuram, Ambattur; Bharathipuram, Third Street, Anna Nagar; Perumal Koil Street, New Colony, Nerkundram; Nehru Street, K.K. Nagar, Nanganallur; Ellaiamman Koil Street, Besant Nagar and Corporation Shopping Complex, Anna Salai, Kanthanchavadi.
Five of the dental clinics will be inaugurated on April 22, three on April 23 and two on April 25.
The existing dental clinics are on Adithanar Salai, Pudupet; 514, Anna Salai, Teynampet; Nallankuppam, T. Nagar and T.H. Road, V.R. Nagar.
The Madras Dental College’s camp for children in Corporation-run schools in the city a few years ago found that 85 per cent of children had some form of abnormality in their teeth The lack of awareness of the Chennai Corporation’s dental clinics was one of the factors contributing to inadequate oral hygiene among a number of residents in the city.
Many residents in slums do not visit dentists on account of the unaffordable nature of such treatment. “These clinics and the group of motivated dentists will promote oral hygiene in many neighbourhoods,” said an official.
