Tongan Dental Project 2008
2008 Rotary Dental Team Visit to Tonga
September 24 to October 8. 2008
Team Members;
This was done by the Rotary team in conjunction with the Dental staff at the Vaiola Hospital Dental Clinic led by CDO Dr. Sililo Tomiki. The surveys are all done to current WHO survey criteria (with some additions) using standard WHO survey forms designed and supplied by Dr E. Martini.
A total of 630 children were examined. Examiners were Dr. E.Martini, Dr.S. Tomiki and Dr.D.Goldsmith and Ms T.Martini. Standardization between all the examiners was done prior to the survey being performed. Recorders were dental nurses Mss. Camille Lewis, Nenase Latu, Silia Latu and Elasi Manufekai Tae'iloa and Teisa Faletau (Tongan nationals- a great help as few of the children spoke English) and various staff from the Tonga Education Department helped with logistics and documentation.
This is part of an ongoing 20 year study into caries in Tongan schoolchildren - our final survey will take place in 2013. Previous studies were done in 1998 and 2003 involving similar personnel including Drs Ekke Martini and David Goldsmith. The survey data will be vetted and analyzed by the team and by Melbourne University Dental School (Dr. Matthew Hopcroft) and results should be available for publication by March 2009.
Clinical and educational training work in Crown and Bridge procedures was also undertaken at the Vaiola Hospital dental clinic, Nuku'alofa introducing new techniques and materials. The results will be of interest for a variety of reasons such as monitoring the caries rates over a 20+ year period (the first Tongan national DMFT survey was done in 1986 by Dr Tomiki) and to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive programs introduced by the Tongan dental staff such as a fissure sealant program in 2002 and progressive introduction of Fluoride mouthrinse programs into Tongan primary schools.
Tonga has divided its dental department into two separate areas - Preventive and Treatment departments with dedicated staff allocated to each area. The results of this in conjunction with the other surveys will help the dental department to evaluate the effectiveness of their preventive dental programs and to help to decide where and how and at what age to target its resources in the future. This study will also be of particular interest because very few surveys of a nation's dental caries rate involving the same examiners over such a long period of time have been published by the in the international literature before.
Team Members;
- Dr. Ekke Martini (Ballarat Rotary Club, Dentist and main organizer of the survey)
- Ms Tamsin Martini (Dental Therapist / Hygienist)
- Ms Camille Lewis (Dental Nurse)
- Mrs. Teisa Faletau (Nurse)
- Mr. Tae'iloa Faletau
- Dr David Goldsmith (Ballarat West Rotary Club, Dentist and team leader)
This was done by the Rotary team in conjunction with the Dental staff at the Vaiola Hospital Dental Clinic led by CDO Dr. Sililo Tomiki. The surveys are all done to current WHO survey criteria (with some additions) using standard WHO survey forms designed and supplied by Dr E. Martini.
A total of 630 children were examined. Examiners were Dr. E.Martini, Dr.S. Tomiki and Dr.D.Goldsmith and Ms T.Martini. Standardization between all the examiners was done prior to the survey being performed. Recorders were dental nurses Mss. Camille Lewis, Nenase Latu, Silia Latu and Elasi Manufekai Tae'iloa and Teisa Faletau (Tongan nationals- a great help as few of the children spoke English) and various staff from the Tonga Education Department helped with logistics and documentation.
This is part of an ongoing 20 year study into caries in Tongan schoolchildren - our final survey will take place in 2013. Previous studies were done in 1998 and 2003 involving similar personnel including Drs Ekke Martini and David Goldsmith. The survey data will be vetted and analyzed by the team and by Melbourne University Dental School (Dr. Matthew Hopcroft) and results should be available for publication by March 2009.
Clinical and educational training work in Crown and Bridge procedures was also undertaken at the Vaiola Hospital dental clinic, Nuku'alofa introducing new techniques and materials. The results will be of interest for a variety of reasons such as monitoring the caries rates over a 20+ year period (the first Tongan national DMFT survey was done in 1986 by Dr Tomiki) and to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive programs introduced by the Tongan dental staff such as a fissure sealant program in 2002 and progressive introduction of Fluoride mouthrinse programs into Tongan primary schools.
Tonga has divided its dental department into two separate areas - Preventive and Treatment departments with dedicated staff allocated to each area. The results of this in conjunction with the other surveys will help the dental department to evaluate the effectiveness of their preventive dental programs and to help to decide where and how and at what age to target its resources in the future. This study will also be of particular interest because very few surveys of a nation's dental caries rate involving the same examiners over such a long period of time have been published by the in the international literature before.