As a final year dental student at Griffith University, I have been fortunate enough to experience treating a large number of patients in a varying range of clinical settings including the university clinic, Queensland Health placement at Stafford and several voluntary trips to the aboriginal town of Cherbourg located 250km northwest of Brisbane.
The university clinic plays an important role during early years in the development of basic clinical and patient management skills when students treat patients for the first time during the degree course. After developing grounding in the basic clinical skills and theory during third and fourth years I was placed at Stafford for Queensland Health clinical placement in early fifth year (January-May 2013). This would prove to be a challenging and invaluable five month experience. I had the opportunity to treat eight or nine patients daily, four days a week which was closer to the rigorous workload of a full time dentist than I had ever experienced before.
The volunteering work included treating four emergency patients every day and spending one day every week at a primary school clinic treating children by providing both preventative and restorative oral health care. This meant that I had the opportunity to deal with patients from differing socio-economic, social and ethnic backgrounds. This included refugee patients who needed interpreters to help facilitate communication regarding their complex dental treatment.
It was particularly challenging to emphasise the importance of oral health to some of these patients in light of their socio-economic conditions, social distress and lack of access to timely dental care which was very low priority for a lot of these patients due to the complexity of their social, socioeconomic and health issues. I learned to take the time to listen to and understand the patients' concerns and barriers faced in maintaining their oral hygiene. For some refugee patients this involved demonstrating simple tooth brushing and flossing techniques as they had not been educated about this before. Furthermore they also found it helpful to be advised about where to find and purchase the oral hygiene aids required to keep their oral health well maintained.
I also learned the importance of informing all my patients regarding oral hygiene measures and the necessity to improve their periodontal health prior to going on to advanced restorative work which would heavily rely on their oral hygiene for sustainability. I learned to appreciate the importance of the patient's general health and wellbeing as well as the impact of the same on their oral health. In particular, I came to realise how stress, headaches and life changing events in the patient's life may manifest orally in the form of clenching, attrition, cheek biting, and soreness to muscles of mastication, and sensitivity which may not be attributed to other clinical factors.
This experience helped me change my approach from fixating on just the patient's teeth and oral structures to considering their personality, experience of pain and personal interpretation of the changes they observe and feel within their mouth and body. I found it extremely satisfying to be able to help improve my patients' oral health by taking the time to understand their concerns and explain complex treatment options in concise and easy to understand words to help them make an informed decision about their treatment needs. I was rewarded for this consistently with verbal feedback from patients who appreciated my enthusiasm for their care and concerns. My presentation and communication skills were further sharpened at placement as I presented relevant literature on a range of topics in dentistry.
I was greatly honoured to receive recognition for my patient care and work as reflected by the kind compliments I received from one of my patients at the Stafford clinic. This has taught me that genuine patient care and empathy go a long way in keeping patients interested in their dental treatment and the efforts we as clinicians put into their treatment is reflected in their appreciation and smiles at the end.
Following Stafford, I had the opportunity to work voluntarily as a team member of the Hope4Health club, which involves spending one week in the aboriginal town of Cherbourg four times a year. This work encompasses setting up mobile dental chairs (donated by Griffith University) at the Barambah Health Centre in an effort to provide comprehensive and emergency dental care for the community under the supervision of a senior dentist. The community has not retained a regular dentist for several years and the patients seen are often in chronic pain including children as young as three with abscessed teeth. I was one of ten student team members led by Ryan Goh, a fellow fifth year student that have had the satisfaction of helping out the rural community lacking access to adequate dental services.
During our trip in May 2013 our team treated 123 patients and completed 380 procedures for the week despite limitations in resources and equipment. This was acknowledged and published by the Dental Bite Magazine, July 2013 Issue. This experience has greatly enhanced my enthusiasm for working in a rural community in future as patients have been very grateful for the time we have spent in addressing their oral health concerns. I found it particularly satisfying to help relieve patients from chronic pain and see them leave with a smile on their face. It has also been satisfying to educate the patients and their families about oral hygiene measures and preventative strategies in maintaining good oral health.
We received very kind feedback from the community as we ensured that all patients attending the clinic received oral hygiene instruction, toothbrushes and toothpastes for future prevention of decay and infections. Despite spending eight hours each day in the clinic throughout the week I felt very energised and fulfilled in knowing that I was providing essential health care services as part of a motivated team of students who aim to continually help improve the oral health care of the community. I hope to utilise my experience of volunteering work from Cherbourg to continue working toward better healthcare for a regional community in future.
Aditya Shukla
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