Dental Program
The Dental team were elated to welcome a new Dentist in September 2022 to join our team and increase access to oral hygiene and dental support for the Skidegate community. We appreciate this has been a long year and we are excited to welcome you all to meet our new Dentist – Dr. Veronika Kolgeganova. Our program continues to be busy, and we have also made a conscious effort to raise awareness of our service by having dental booths at the high school job fairs and at the open house for Skidegate Band Council where we had people sign up for custom made sport guards, just in time for the All Native Basketball Tournament
Visiting Professionals
We were very fortunate to have visiting dental professionals come to our community to remove the need to travel and recover and instead have it done at home. The visiting professionals included:
Orthodontist (Dr. Corbett)
Travelled to Skidegate four times during the fiscal year. Orthodontics focus on addressing issues with malocclusions (improper bites), which may be a result of tooth irregularity and/or disproportionate jaw relationships.
Oral Surgeon (Dr. Matthews)
travelled to Skidegate two times during the fiscal year, and bought students with them to further support community need. Oral and maxillofacial surgery is surgery to treat many diseases, injuries and defects in the head, neck, face, jaws and the hard and soft tissues of the oral (mouth) and Cranio-maxillofacial (jaws and face) region. Dr. Ian Matthew (the Head of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Department of UBC) comes to treat patients in our clinic for a day and a half (Please refer to Oral Surgery Protocols).
Endodontist (Dr. Coil)
Travelled to Skidegate three times during the fiscal year, and bought students with them to further support community need. Endodontists specialize in tooth pain, disease, and infection – usually the inside of the tooth is their focus. Dr. Jeff Coil usually visits around Canada Day and at another time in the Fall. The clinic keeps an ongoing list of patients requiring these services and arranges these specialist’s availability. If a patient requires or requests urgent care they should be referred off island.
Locum Dentists (Dr. Baharnaz Baharloo, Dr. Jeroff, and Dr. Koleganova)
Travelled to Skidegate during the fiscal year, and since then Dr. Koleganova has become our full-time Dentist.
Additional Initiatives
Team members participated in annual medication management, infection prevention and control, privacy and security, and hand hygiene audits in collaboration with the Health Professions Committee, Occupational Health & Safety Committee, and Quality & Safety Committee which allowed for conversations regarding continuous quality improvement within the organization. Further training included online privacy and security training.
We communicate with our community regularly about our services through Facebook, the website, and by providing patients the Evaluation Satisfaction Survey which we review the results of on a quarterly basis with the Quality and Safety Committee. This year we also sent out an additional community survey to guide our future expansion of our dental clinic and services of which 43 responses were received. The community identified that the main strengths in the community included traditional ceremonial language and culture, family values, social connections, Elders and use of language and culture. Therefore, we will explore how to further enhance our practice with cultural aspects of care.
When asked about general dental health, the following was identified:
- More than 70% thought their health was fair or better.
- Compared to five years ago, 85% thought their dental health was about the same or better.
- 71% thought their dental health could be better improved by changing their lifestyle and/ or habits, such as eating better, quitting smoking/vaping, and reducing sugary snacks.
- Over 90% felt satisfied with the services provided by the Dental Health team.
- 87% felt the Dental Program met the needs of the community and family.
- Access (location) and availability was most important to respondents of the Dental Clinic.
- Half of the respondents accessed dental care services and supports outside of the Society, and these included a Dentist off Island in DG, Surgery in Vancouver, other dental services in Victoria, the Massett Clinic, and Dental PR at Terrace Dentures
Overall, the community felt there were no barriers, however, a few people shared that they find it difficult with fees and additional costs, not understanding the booking process, transportation, location, access, dental anxiety and that no medical professionals are available. Services that would promote long term dental wellbeing were more promotional events (such as at the school) and education and information training evenings.
Community members preferred accessing and receiving cultural or traditional healing in the forms of natural traditional medicines and remedies, hunting/food gatherings and on the land teachings, traditional healing practices (smudging/brushing), massage, reiki, energy healers. 75% felt the Cultural and Traditional dental programs and services could be improved by artwork, a Haida name and greetings, and signage in Haida.
Suggestions to improve the program and general dental health included the establishment of an orientation program so that people wouldn’t be scared to go back again, more parenting skills for parents, training youth in dental and continuing with more promotion and communication.
Our future goal is that we address the suggestions and feedback made from our community and work to expand the dental clinic and services when other program areas move to the new health centre.
