NEW DELHI: Awareness about oral hygiene is usually low among people. It is even lower among the hearing impaired due to a communication barrier.
Dr Sumbul Hashmi, a postgraduate student in public health dentistry at Delhi's Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Health Sciences (MAIDS), is making a rare attempt to fix this problem. To communicate to children with special needs, the 27-year-old has learned sign language.
"Earlier, I would try to infer the ailment of a hearing impaired patient on my own but I realised it isn't the ideal way to diagnose and treat. So I learned sign language," Hashmi told TOI. Sign language involves manual communication-hand gestures or facial expression-to convey meaning instead of sound patterns.
Dr Hashmi said she sees no more than two hearing impaired patients at the hospital. But she visits schools and NGOs to create awareness about oral hygiene among disabled children.
"Children with special needs are sharp and they give feedback. But communication is a big barrier if you do not know sign language," she said.
Pooja (12) was born with a cleft lip, which affected her speech and hearing. Her condition made her prone to dental caries and other oral health problems but she always found excuses to avoid visiting a dentist. "She never felt comfortable with the doctor because of inadequate communication. The fact that Dr Hashmi knows sign language helped her calm down and now she is undergoing treatment here," her father Rajpal said.
In India, 0.4% of 1065.40 million children are either deaf or hard of hearing. Experts said more doctors with special skills are required to deal with such children.
Also, there is a need for a separate instruction manual to help create awareness about oral hygiene among such people.
According to Dr Mahesh Verma, director and principal of MAIDS, the hospital plans to set up a separate clinic for children with special needs in its upcoming block.
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