“They are mothers who are smart and active within their communities. In particular, Suliman worked closely with community health workers known as the women’s development army. She first approached several local stakeholders in Koraro such as nurses, midwives, farmers, youth organizations, and development group members.

If they can be convinced that traditional practices are harmful, they will also convince everyone else in their community,” added Suliman. “Instead of just telling them what to do, it is important to work with them by first gaining the trust of the community gatekeepers. “When sugar gets introduced to their diets, which I assume is happening now thanks to better access to soda and snacks, they will also develop cavities.”īeing a foreign researcher, she was aware that merely telling a community why their traditional practices are wrong and that they need to develop new habits would be perceived as an attack. The problem was that they did not brush their teeth regularly, which resulted in a lot of gum inflammation and bleeding,” said Suliman. “I was not shocked because they did not have access to sugar back then. She observed that most of the villagers did not have tooth decay. These studies shed light on the causes of oral conditions. Under Suliman’s guidance, the team carried out extensive research that included focus groups, surveys, and dental examinations in Koraro. (The official language in Ethiopia is Amharic.) To overcome the language barriers, Suliman recruited dentistry students from the University of Addis Ababa fluent in English and Tigrinya. Soon after landing in Ethiopia in 2012, Suliman set out to explore how she could address such deep-seated oral health issues in Koraro.Ī remote village located in the northern Ethiopian Tigray region, Koraro’s 55,000 residents speak the Tigrinya language. “Misinformation and myths have made the villagers believe that a sick child will get cured by removing the uvula or tooth buds during the teething phase,” explained Suliman. Some of these practices include gum tattooing, extracting baby teeth, and subjecting children to uvulectomy (a surgical procedure where the uvula - the small bell-shaped piece of flesh that hangs from the roof of the mouth - is removed). Cultural beliefs and harmful traditional practices also play a role. In rural Ethiopia, socioeconomics and lack of access to dental services are not the only causes of rampant oral conditions among children and adults. Joining forces with a rural Ethiopian community She then joined the Earth Institute (now Columbia Climate School) part-time in 2012 as the oral health and hygiene project director in Koraro, a Millennium Village project site in Ethiopia. student at the university’s epidemiology department. After graduating in 2011, she soon got accepted as a Ph.D. In 2009, she moved to New York to join Columbia University’s Master of Public Health degree program to gain a deeper understanding of the field. That experience piqued her interest in working with marginalized populations and implementing ambitious nation-wide oral health programs. Using her expertise as a general dental practitioner, she helped set up the first statewide oral health school program in Khartoum and also developed research guidelines for the ministry. Originally from Sudan, Suliman first ventured into the public health field after joining the Ministry of Health in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. While leading the oral health and hygiene initiative at the Earth Institute’s Millennium Villages project, Suliman tried to implement a similar collaborative strategy in Ethiopia. “Instead, prevention of dental diseases needs to be addressed at the state level.” “Oral health needs to be integrated into public health because prevention should not be an individual issue,” Suliman argues. Suliman attributes part of this success to better coordination between pediatricians and dentists. By 2020, the percentage had risen to 80.9%.

children aged 0 to 17 years had an annual visit to the dentist’s office. Collaborations such as these can help to reduce some barriers to receiving dental care. In this capacity, dental health is intimately connected to public health, pointed out Suliman, an epidemiology doctoral student at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.Īccording to the American Association of Pediatric Dentistry’s policy, pediatricians should refer parents to a pediatric dentist for an infant’s first dental check-up by the age of six to 12 months. It also involves diet counseling and educating parents about the importance of preventive dental services. As a pediatric dentist and epidemiologist, Safaa Suliman knows that working with children is not only about fixing their teeth.

Integrated age of water