Time to get full set of dentures, cervical cancer screening

By Asia Samachar Team | MALAYSIA |

Know someone in Malaysia who has lost all their teeth? They can immediately get a full set of dentures and return to their routine diet for a healthy living.

“Many senior citizens have missing teeth. They then start changing their diet,” Dr Jacob John from University of Malaya’s dentistry faculty told Asia Samachar.

He led a team to provide dental screening at Gudwara Sahib Petaling Jaya on 3 Nov 2019. The one-day free dental and cervical health screenings were organised at the sidelines of the gurdwara’s 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak’s birth. #GuruNanak550Malaysia

Dr Jacob, an associate professor at the UM Department of Restorative Dentistry, said a full set of teeth will enable them to go back to their usual diet.

“If anyone is missing all of their teeth, they can register. We will call them and provide free dentures. They can get almost immediate treatment,” he said. The treatment will be done at the dental faculty, located within the UMSC in Petaling Jaya.

“If you are missing some teeth, you can still register, but you will fall under a wait list,” he said.

While the dental clinic was going on at one corner of the gurdwara, another set of volunteers from Rose Foundation were running a cervical cancer screening at the other end.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women with an estimated 570,000 new cases in 2018 representing 6.6% of all female cancers globally. Close to 90% of deaths from cervical cancer occurred in low- and middle-income countries, according to WHO information.

The high mortality rate from cervical cancer globally could be reduced through a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, early diagnosis, effective screening and treatment programmes. There are currently vaccines that protect against common cancer-causing types of human papilloma virus and can significantly reduce the risk of cervical cancer, it added.

In Malaysia, ROSE (Removing Obstacles to Cervical Screening), an innovation by Universiti Malaya (UM) and VCS Foundation (VCSF) of Australia, is a pioneering effort to battle cervical cancer.

All the medical and support staff at the clinics had volunteered their time and energy for the day.

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