No more toothaches in Narathiwat thanks to free services from Chula students
Would-be dentists from Chulalongkorn University made time last week to tend to people with dental problems in the southern province of Narathiwat.
As part of a project initiated by the Royal Initiative Discovery Foundation, free dental services were provided on Wednesday and Thursday to 2,090 people from the districts of Rusoh, Joh I Rong, Si Sakhon, Yi-ngor and Bacho.
The event held in Rusoh district included filling teeth, extraction of rotten teeth, scaling and extraction of wisdom teeth.
This project has been running since 1969 when Princess Srinagarindra visited rural areas and found many people suffering from dental problems.
The foundation has expanded the project and is now also covering the southern border provinces.
Though people have to wait several months to avail of these services, it helps reduce the burden on local hospitals, said Kritsada Bunlart, who oversees the project.
The last time Chulalongkorn dentistry students were in the South was in 2019 when they served the residents of Yala’s Bannang Sata district. Before that, they were in Pattani’s Sai Buri district in 2018.
Free dentistry services were suspended since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but were restarted last week and will be provided at least twice a year.
