Academic Information
The department of Community Dentistry is anchored around three broad focus areas:
Providing clinical services within the ambit of the university surrounding area through various outreach projects and within the University teaching hospital, the Wits Oral Health Centre. This is reflected in our teaching, research, and the services that we offer through our Community Oral Health Outreach Programme (COHOP).
Community Oral Health Outreach Programme (COHOP)
The mission statement of the Department of Community Dentistry is to promote health and prevent oral disease through teaching, research and service. The Community Oral Health Outreach Programme (COHOP) has enabled the department to achieve many of its teaching, research and service delivery objectives. Following on a demand for essential oral health services, which was confirmed by epidemiological studies demonstrating huge needs, the initial outreach programme began in 1983. This has continued today as one of the flagship projects in the Wits School of Oral Health Sciences.
The main objectives of the programme are as follows;
- To provide quality comprehensive oral health services by caring and committed personnel
- To carry out oral health assessments in the various communities
- To promote oral health and create greater oral health awareness
- To operate with a team approach effectively utilising the best mix of oral health workers
- To empower and utilise local resources
- To foster staff development at all levels
- To work in closer cooperation with Gauteng Department of Health
- To encourage and facilitate community involvement
- To provide oral health services and carry out relevant research which would assist in addressing problems faced by vulnerable groups such as school children, the elderly, and individuals with learning and physical disabilities.
- To provide and offer an excellent facility for training, research, and service learning for under and post graduate dental and oral hygienist students
The programme is operated from a mobile dental unit which is equipped to provide oral health screening for common diseases including dental caries, periodontal disease, and management of oral manifestations of HIV/AIDS and restorations. We are fortunate to have two trucks, one of the trucks operate within 5km radius of the University, it is therefore referred to as the Local truck and the other operates in the Diepsloot area.
Teaching and Training of undergraduate and postgraduate students
Teaching competencies at Undergraduate level
On completion of the course the student will be able to:
- Conduct and write up a situation analysis.
- Record and interpret caries status Develop and present a research protocol, implement the research and compile a short report.
- Plan, monitor and implement community based oral health prevention, oral health education and promotion programmes. Apply the principles of evidence-based dentistry in a clinical and non-clinical setting (critical appraisal of published evidence)
- Perform the clinical treatment in community-based settings.
- Communicate with community members in the various settings.
- Communicate with other members of the health team.
- Explain the role of being a professional and ensure that the ethical conduct is in place.
- Present the needs of the community to the stakeholders involved.
Teaching Competencies at Postgraduate Level
- Surveillance, assessment of population oral health (analyzing, interpreting information, knowledge and statistics)
- Developing quality within an evaluative culture
- Collaborative working for health
- Developing health programmes and services and reducing inequalities
- Policy and strategy development and implementation
- Strategic leadership for health
- Working with and for communities
- Research and Development
- Ethically managing self, people, and resources