FNHA Dental Therapists partnered with the Vancouver Native Health Society Eastside Dental Clinic in early September, treating over a dozen adult patients in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The team is situated in communities across each of the five regions and all team members expressed how wonderful it was to spend the day working together, as they are often working alone.
“We treated painful dental conditions that otherwise, if left untreated, would have caused much discomfort and a decrease in their quality of life,” said FNHA Dental Therapist Hugh Ormerod. “The members of the FNHA dental therapy team are a compassionate group who dedicate their services to the First Nations people of British Columbia.”
The team’s day in the downtown eastside was the first meeting of its “study group” – an opportunity for hands-on training with Dr. David Ciriani, a dentist from Kamloops who provides professional oversight for the FNHA dental therapists. This type of study group learning is not only invaluable to the development and evolution of the dental therapists’ expertise and capacity, but contributes to the accumulation of training hours required by the College of Dental Surgeons of BC.
The FNHA Dental Therapists are part of the First Nations Health Benefits Oral Health Team that also includes the Children’s Oral Health Initiative (COHI). In addition to providing a range of treatment services, FNHA Dental Therapists work to reduce and prevent oral disease through education and health promotion services.
“I am so pleased to see our partnerships evolving to a point where we can not only support service delivery to our clients, but provide invaluable training opportunities for our FNHA staff as experienced in this case with the FNHA dental therapists,” said John Mah, Vice-President of First Nations Health Benefits with the FNHA. “I look forward to building on this positive experience.”
As members of a multi-disciplinary team, Dental Therapists provide restorative dental treatment services, disease prevention and oral health programs to maintain and improve oral health. These services are provided in both traditional and non-traditional settings with permanent or portable dental equipment depending on the location. The dental programs and services provided vary depending on the needs of the community.
The dental team extends a huge “thank you” to Dr. Ciriani and the volunteers of the Vancouver Native Health Society Eastside Dental Clinic. Their guidance and assistance helped make the team’s visit a success!