On October 2nd, Tufts Korean American Dental Association (KADA) visited Saint Antoine Daveluy Church, a Korean Catholic church, to provide oral cancer screenings and intra-oral exams.
There were 2 mass sessions at the Korean Catholic church on Sunday morning, one for children and one for adults. After children were done with their mass, our student group composed of D18s, D19s, and D20s divided into 4 groups and gave oral health instruction and explained the importance of brushing/flossing and how to maintain their oral cavity to be clean and healthy. We were actually pretty surprised that children were really educated. Obviously there were a few kids whose parents were dentists but still, they knew more than we expected when we discussed what to tell them before going into the room where children were divided by age. They really participated in our small lectures and enjoyed it, and it was really fun talking with them!
Right before adult mass was done, we set up the room with 3 tables with screening supplies and also set up 2 tables outside the room for people signing consent forms and picking up toothpaste/toothbrush kits. Some people came in and had the screening, and some people just wrote down the yellow new patient card outside the room and left. Some people had just immigrated from Korea and they said they were not comfortable speaking with a dentist in English, so they could not really understand what the dentist told them. We tried to explain things to them using easier words for them to understand and also recommended that they come to our clinic and get screened to get a second opinion and make decisions regarding their dental treatment. At the end, a total of 6-7 people decided to come to our Tufts clinic to get screened and possibly get treatment. Some did not really need any dental treatment currently, but said that they really liked the OHI they received during the screening session one-on-one with us.
We will hold this event regularly as a KADA event in the future and we hope to help more people in the Boston community.
Written by: Jihee Park (D18)
