One week has already passed since our arrival in Mangalore; only one and there is already so much to talk about! From the very beginning this journey has been a continuously marvellous experience in every aspect. Even the trip to Mangalore was an adventure itself, an exhausting, 10+ hour long adventure. On the first day we were introduced to several professors of the A.B. Shetty memorial dental hospital. They were welcoming and inspirational that we could not have hoped for a more heartfelt and better start. The first challenge we were asked to face was to participate in a competition for the celebration of the 30th year from the establishment of this charitable institution (lucky us!).
30 major dental colleges located in 3/4 States around Karnataka (the region where we are) were asked to participate. They started preparing their work a month before the exposition, whereas we did a simple but efficient presentation about oral hygiene within the space of a few days. The main purpose of the competition was to create awareness about oral hygiene for the general public. For this reason the event took place in the fully crowded City Centre Mall, on the days of 1st and 2nd of august (India´s Oral Hygiene Day). Many of the participating colleges prepared table top models and some of them, including ourselves, a poster. Our work was divided in three main points: the importance of check-ups, the brushing techniques and the flossing techniques. We created a fully authentic and unique poster with all of the photos and drawings being our own. We also performed a demonstration on how to brush your teeth and how to use dental floss on each other.
It was indeed a great experience because we got in contact with students from different colleges, with whom we exchanged our knowledge about the world of dentistry. We also met many professors that were enthusiastic to know more about our system of healthcare and also to explain to us how they organize their curricula and courses. Hopefully, we were able to make a change to the people who were not aware about the importance of oral hygiene and also the measures to take to improve the hygiene status in their mouths.
