Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited (GULF) and the Faculty of Dentistry. Chulalongkorn University (Dent Chula) continue the second
“GULF Sparks Smiles” offsite dental unit this year, at Chalong Krung neighborhood in Nong Chok district. After receiving positive feedback from locals who came for the dental services initiated in 2020, the campaign started off once again in 2022 with the first unit already in Bang Khun Thian district.
The
“GULF Sparks Smiles” campaign offers basic dental treatments such as fillings, tooth extraction, scaling,
fluoride coating, and x-rays, in addition to more sophisticated procedures like wisdom tooth extraction. The daily capacity of the units is
roughly 150-200 cases. Additionally, the dentist team from Dent Chula and the volunteer staff from GULF deliver dental health education
to the people so that they would have a better understanding of dental health care to care for themselves and be able to pass the
information onto others for sustainable oral health care.
Panchita Reeanrakwong, MD., a dentist at Lam Phak Chi Public Health Service Center in Nong Chok District, Bangkok, said,
“GULF had approached us first, as the company wished to provide free dental services to underprivileged communities in remote places.
The Nong Chok district has a population of over 200,000. People in the neighborhood also have limited access to dental treatments due to the fact that there are only two large state health care facilities, a limited number of medical workers, and that each dental service session requires time. Therefore, I believe this offsite dental campaign conducted by GULF and Dent Chula will be beneficial to the community since it provides them with free dental treatment and reaches them in places with the greatest need.”
Lt. Gen. Panthip Raksaseree, a volunteer dentist for this inititative, remarked, “Preventing oral health issues is something that we can begin doing on our own. We should brush our teeth twice every day for a total of 2-3 minutes and we should visit the dentist for dental check-ups every 6 months. Dent Chula and GULF aim that this campaign will help educate the public about dental health and continue
the beneficial results towards sustainable oral and dental health care.”
GULF obtained support from the Department of Health (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration)
in pinpointing the neighborhoods that actually require assistance. On November 23, 2022, the final
unit will be located in Wat Thiphawat in the Lat Krabang District. A limited number of walk-in registrations
will be accepted between 8:00 - 9:00 hrs. For more information, please visit GULF Spark Facebook fanpage
https://www.facebook.com/GulfSPARK.TH/
