Depok, July 12th 2023. With a population of more than nine million spread across 13 regencies and 2 cities, the Province of Lampung still has its own challenges in equal distribution of public health services, especially in the aspect of dental and oral health care. The Lampung Provincial Government (Pemprov) stated that one of the problems was the imbalance between the number of dentists and the population. There are only 2-3 dentists for every 1000 residents. In addition, the level of public awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy teeth and mouth is also very minimal.
This was conveyed by the Governor of Lampung Ir. H. Arinal Djunaidi in his written remarks, represented by the Expert Staff of the Governor of Lampung for Social Affairs and Human Resources, Intizam, at an activity organized by the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Indonesia (FKG UI), Sunday (9/7). The activity entitled “FKG UI Social Work 2023” is a collaboration between FKG UI and the Lampung Provincial Government to provide solutions to the problems faced by Lampung.
Arinal said, with the reputation that FKG UI has as one of the best campuses in producing professional dentists, it will certainly lead to a positive impact from every contribution made to the local government. He also expressed his appreciation and gratitude to FKG UI for choosing Lampung as the target for health and education services for residents.
“I appreciate the high social spirit of the FKG UI academic community, for sincerely dedicating their time to helping our citizens in the form of dental and oral health education and services. In addition, in the future it is hoped that the number of villages visited can be expanded to remote villages,” said Arinal who was represented by Intizam at the Pusiban Building, the Government Center of the Province of Lampung.
FKG UI Social Work is held as a concrete manifestation of the implementation of the 3rd pillar of the Tri Dharma, namely community service (pengmas) as well as a routine agenda every two years. Over the last 20 years, since it was first implemented in 2000 in Bangka, there are now 10 regions that have been given education and health services. These areas include Padang, Pontianak, Lombok, Banjarmasin, North Maluku, Central Sulawesi, Lombok-Sumbawa, Babel and East Nusa Tenggara. On this occasion, the Province of Lampung became the 11th region in the implementation of FKG UI Social Work Community Service activities.
Dean of FKG UI, Dr. drg. Nia Ayu Ismaniati, MDSc., Sp.Ort(K)., said that the reason for choosing Lampung as the 11th area was because geographically, it was not too far from the center of the Capital City of Jakarta. Moreover, based on analysis from Basic Health Research Data (Riskesdas), Lampung had dental and oral problems that reached 56.23% with the percentage that receive dental medical treatment only reaching 4.88%.
“Therefore, we are trying to support the Province of Lampung to jointly overcome this problem with the hope of a preventive promotional approach to the community. Hopefully, it can independently increase public awareness to routinely check their health to dentists and increase their knowledge from an early age about the importance of caring for their teeth,” said Dr. drg. Nia.
This activity was carried out for seven days, starting from 9th-15th of July 2023. The activity was carried out in two villages, namely Margoyoso Village, Tanggamus Regency and Waymuli Village, South Lampung Regency. This Community Service involved 105 FKG UI academics consisting of students, lecturers, residents, staff, alumni and two doctors from LADOKGI R.E Martadinata.
FKG UI Social Work includes treatment of 375 actions for children and adults, oral dental health counseling for 300 children and adults, and general blood tests for 200 people. Apart from that, dental and oral health Training on Trainers (ToT) was also conducted for 20 health cadres, 10 school teachers, and 6 little doctors.
