The Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia (ISSBC) is a program for immigrants to gain life skills upon their arrival to Canada. In my second year of the DHDP, Myself and three of my classmates formed a team to provide oral hygiene education for Asian immigrants learning English.
Our team approached this community site by learning about cultural competency and common oral hygiene instruments, such as tooth picks, used by the population foreign to western culture.(1) Our team was challenged with a language barrier, but developed presentations using basic language, pictures, and evaluations in small groups to help enforce the lessons.(2) Although most of the time we were able to communicate with the ISSBC community immigrants, sometimes they could not understand what we were trying to describe. As a team we would critically think on the spot to effectively communicate with them. For example, during our presentation teaching them about which floss is appropriate for them, the community had difficulty understanding waxed floss. Together, we tried to describe wax, but we then had the idea to use yarn and tear it apart to describe why we recommend using waxed floss.
This experience me was my first oral disease prevention activity in a community setting and I learned about communicating with language barriers and explaining oral conditions such as gingivitis, cavities, etc. in a simplified way. Most importantly, having the opportunity to learn from a community from a different cultural background from myself challenged the way I think about western practices, and how I can help clients navigate their oral health according to what is right for themselves.
References
- Lin HC, Schwarz E. Oral health and dental care in modern-day China. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2018;29(5):319-28.
- Lynch T, Maclean, J. Exploring the benefits of task repetition and recycling for classroom language learning. Lang Teach Res. 2000;4(3):227-35.