Founded by Dr Mukesh Panwar in 2017, Smile Express has conducted over 300 screening and treatment camps in government and private schools, colleges, slums, and industrial areas in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Tobacco use is directly linked to many diseases. In addition to several chronic diseases, most of the Indian populace is affected with common oral problems like periodontal disease, which affects 90-95 percent of the population, followed by dental caries (tooth decay) affecting nearly 60-80 percent of children, and oral cancer accounts for almost 30-35 percent of the total diagnosed cancer cases.
While most of these problems are curable, what makes the situation worse in rural areas, which constitutes 70 percent of the Indian population, is not having proper oral healthcare facilities.
Witnessing the plight of oral healthcare in rural Rajasthan, Dr Mukesh Panwar decided to address the problem, and founded the Smile Express in 2017.
Led by Rajasthan-based Oral Health Promotion Foundation, the organization is on a mission to take oral healthcare to people in rural India.
Smile Express has so far conducted over 300 screening and treatment camps in government and private schools, colleges, slums, and industrial areas in rural and urban areas of Jaipur, Rajasthan. It has also treated over 14,800 people of all ages across the State.
Taking oral healthcare to rural India
Rural India has always witnessed a shortage of basic healthcare facilities. Though there are many healthcare facilities being provided to the rural populace with new government schemes such as the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, dental health has been restricted to just the urban areas, thereby excluding the rural and the underprivileged population from receiving adequate dental health facilities. And if they need treatment, they need to travel to nearby towns multiple times, burning a hole in their pocket.
Hailing from Balotra in Western Rajasthan, Mukesh had witnessed the plight of rural healthcare first-hand.
