Pacific Oral Health Centre Is A First Of Its Kind Visionary Project Tied Up With UBC School Of Dentistry To Infuse Research, Training, Surgery And Everything To Do With Dentistry Under One Roof!
By R. Paul Dhillon
SURREY – Well known dentist Dr. Harry Dhanju and the Board of Directors of his brand new Pacific Oral Health Centre held a fabulous event Thursday evening at their newly constructed, state of the arts facility in South Surrey to celebrate a visionary venture that Dhanju hopes will become a multi-faceted approach to providing dental services to low income (under $36,000 annual income) and poor families who can’t afford dental care at all.
“For me this is a project to serve the community and not about money,” said President and Founder of Dr. Dhanju, whose vision of creating a groundbreaking dental facility in the Surrey area got a boost when it tied up with UBC School of Dentistry to serve as a satellite college for the training of their dental students as well as providing dental education to foreign students, especially from India and the South Asian subcontinent.
“My only request to the community is be honest and declare you proper income and avail our services and abuse the facility because our goal is to serve the community but also to make the dental centre sustainable,” Dr. Dhanju told the LINK during an interview following the formal part of the event Thursday.
“We are here for the community if they have any questions regarding dental care or a professional opinion on the dental work they need or they have already got done because we provide affordable hands on service. Even those who can’t afford the dental services, we will help them to get it done for very low cost or free,” he said.
Prominent people from the dentistry fraternity were on hand for Thursday’s ‘1st Annual Reception’, including BC Dental Association chief Dr. Russell Hamanishi, who has been a great supporter of the new facility, as well as Dr. Charles Schuler, Dean of the affiliated UBC School of Dentistry.
Dr. Dhanju also had a special guest from India – the eminent Dr. Anil Kumar Kohli, who is a retd. Brigadier of the Indian army as well as practising dental surgeon in India, who has been honoured by the government of India with Padam Bhushan and similar high honours for his work in the dentistry field.
“This is a state of the arts facility and for a great purpose of serving the underprivileged,” Dr. Kohli told the LINK on a phone interview Friday. “Dr. Dhanju and his team have done a great job of bridging the gap between community care, professional training and research and in the process have broken all barriers to access to affordable dental care.”
Former Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal was also on hand to congratulate Dr. Dhanju for his great vision and noble cause, saying we need more people like him in the community who are progressive and are leading great change.
“I’m here because this is great for our community and many other communities who want to get affordable care,” said Grewal, who will be seeking the nomination for the federal Conservatives in the Surrey-Cloverdale area.
One of the ways, Dr. Dhanju feels that affordable dental care can be had is through their newly created Sponsor A Smile program, where local businesses or individuals can get involved and sponsor the dental work and in the process receive a charitable receipt for their donations since The Pacific Oral Health Society (P.O.H.S.) is a charitable, non-profit society.
The new centre will also help fill the gap as health care services world-wide struggle with increasing demands and longer waitlists.
P.O.H.S. is a world-class facility that provides oral health care for many underprivileged community members.
“We are proud to host, “Dentistry from the Heart” days to serve our community with a volunteer work force of dental professionals. The first event, Dec. 4th, 2010, was overwhelmed with 350 patients seeking dental treatment, which convinced the Board and stakeholders of the pressing need for the clinic.
“P.O.H.S. is unique and important for Surrey and all surrounding communities. We are excited to be working with the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Dentistry and dozens of other stakeholders who have supported and made this Centre possible. UBC Dentistry’s involvement is consistent with their tradition of working within the communities of B.C,” Dhanju said
The Thursday night event was a celebration of the project to date, where the centre is now actively providing patient care and education to future oral health care professionals in BC.
For further information contact 604-536 2700 or email [email protected].
