Cotabato City recipient of dental health bus

 A LOOK of the equipment inside the DOH-donated, air-conditioned Dental Health Bus now under operation by the Office on Health Services of the Cotabato City Government. (CITY GOVERNMENT OF COTABATO)

A state-of-the-art Dental Health Bus was donated by the Department of Health to the City Government of Cotabato following request from the city’s Office on Health Services (OHS).

This P3 million dental bus is equipped with several facilities to include two fully motorized dental units and chairs, two sets of stainless steel dental instruments, medicines, and it is fully air conditioned.

According to City Health Officer-in-Charge Dr. Suher Guinomla-Ibrahim, the bus can cater to patients for up to eight straight hours per day.

It will be manned by City Dentist Dr. Samira Tuansi-Candao and will be initially extending its services to the far-flung communities of Cotabato City.

Dr. Guinomla-Ibrahim said the dental bus will start its operations this month of November.

“Tooth extraction or bunot and dental check-ups can be performed in our dental health bus. We will be coordinating with our barangays and also our health workers so that we can easily identify the patients who will be needing our services,” she said.

The mobile dental facility was properly turned over by the Department of Health XII OIC Director Dr. Francisco Mateo to the city government during  flag raising ceremony last October 24 and was accepted by Cotabato City Mayor Atty. Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi.

In her speech, the mayor thanked the health department for choosing Cotabato City to be one of the recipients of the dental bus. “The bus will be truly helpful to the city government in extending its services, especially to citizens whose houses are far from the hospitals and have rare or no access at all to dental health care.”

“Proper dental care is something that everybody must learn. Our mouth is a very essential part of our body for it is the first to receive the food that we need in order to survive. Aside from dental care, we also take care of the over-all well being of our citizens for we believe that a healthy community will lead to a progressive community,” Guiani-Sayadi said.

The OHS will also cater to walk-in clients daily at their main office inside the City Engineering Compound. (CITY GOVERNMENT OF COTABATO – MINDANAO EXPOSE’)