Dental and Vision Screening at Hardin Primary School (continued:)
by A .Z.

Working with the elementary school nurse in Harden was a great experience. As my community service project I spent the day performing dental and eye exams for 3rd and 4th graders…I was amazed by the number of children of with either poor eyesight or rotten teeth. When I was first offered the positions, I thought to myself…”Is this really something that’s productive?”

About ¼ of the 50 kids that I screened had vision difficulties that were severe enough to impede then from being able to see the board in the classroom. Perhaps 3 of them had been prescribed and were wearing glasses that were no longer accurately correcting their vision. I was amazed by this. I asked each one if they had difficulty seeing what there teachers had written on the overhead in the classroom and each one would matter of factley tell me “yes”. Its hard when your young, to sit through a day of school…let alone to sit through the day without being able to visualize what your being taught.

The dental exams were also surprising to me. Again, there were about ¼ of the children who I screened that complained of dental pain. About ½ of the children I screen had cavities large enough to fit an eraser head. I kept thinking to myself…if these were my teeth, they would all hurt!

Following my examination I reported my results to the school nurse. She in turn wrote a letter or phones the parents of the children, with the hope that they would follow up.