Last Quarter of 2025 - Camp Updates

During the period from October to December 2025, a total of 37 structured outreach and medical screening camps were conducted across educational institutions, preschools, rural communities, corporate workplaces, and public venues in Tamil Nadu. These initiatives were designed to strengthen preventive health services, promote early detection of health concerns, and expand access to essential medical care.

In aggregate, 4,561 individuals were screened and received clinical check-up and primary treatment, reflecting a substantial contribution to community health service delivery. The programs were implemented through strategic collaborations with Saveetha Medical College, TVS Group of Companies, Builder’s Association of India, and multiple academic and community partners.

Collectively, these outreach efforts underscored effective inter-institutional partnerships, extensive population coverage, and a significant impact on preventive healthcare and public health promotion.

The Pupil - Tiny Tots - Community Helpers - Field Trip - SDC - December 5th 2024

The Saveetha Smile Squad undertook a commendable initiative to engage with young children aged 3 to 4 years from Pupil School by organizing an educational tour of the dental college. This outreach program was aimed at introducing the children to the role of community workers, particularly dental professionals, in promoting oral health and hygiene.

 Objective

Ø  To familiarize young children with the dental care environment in a fun and engaging manner.

Ø  To instil early awareness about the importance of dental hygiene.

Ø  To showcase the work of community workers, especially dentists, in maintaining societal health.

 Activities Done:

Clinical Facilities:

Ø  The children were shown dental chairs, basic tools, and how dentists help people.

Ø  Demonstrations were simplified to avoid overwhelming the children.

Community Worker Interaction:

Ø  Dentists and interns explained their roles as community workers and the importance of dental hygiene.

Ø  A storytelling session emphasized the role of brushing twice a day and visiting a dentist regularly.

The Saveetha Smile Squad’s effort in organizing the educational tour successfully bridged the gap between community service and early childhood education. It laid the foundation for a generation that values oral hygiene and understands the importance of community health workers.

2024 Camp Diaries - Public Health Dentistry - Dental Public Health

The Outreach program for the year 2024 is still on full swing, still we are in December and the team has already attended 441 camps with a whooping number of 36471 beneficiaries. The target groups ranged from school students to corporate employees. Our main focus was on sensitive populations with high unmet treatment needs like MNREGA workers, Transgender population, Institutionalised elderly, Daily wage labourers, who lack access to health care or their barrier to utilisation is very high.

World Blood Donation Day - October 2024 - Saveetha Dental College

National Voluntary Blood Donation Day was observed on October 1, 2024, to emphasize the importance of voluntary blood donation and encourage individuals to contribute to saving lives. Activities included distributing informative pamphlets across various academic blocks to raise awareness and hosting a blood donation drive in the Max Fax Building. The drive provided a safe environment for donors, with medical staff conducting health checks to ensure eligibility. The event saw enthusiastic participation from students, faculty, and staff, fostering a sense of unity and social responsibility while supporting local hospitals with much-needed blood supplies.

World No Tobacco Day - May 2024

World No Tobacco Day aims to draw attention to the business practices of tobacco companies to capture generations of consumers and their interference in policy decisions that undermine effective tobacco control. The theme of World No Tobacco Day 2024 is "Protecting children from tobacco industry interference" to protect future generations and ensure that tobacco use continues to decline. This year in Department of Public Health Dentistry first and second-year postgraduates on the 31st of May, 2024, participated in a rally organized by Rotary District 3232 and “CAN STOP” to observe World No Tobacco Day. The rally was a powerful platform to raise awareness about tobacco's harmful effects on health and public well-being. As public health advocates, our students actively spread the message of tobacco cessation and promoted a smoke-free environment.

18th jan 2024 - Road safety campaign - Public health dentistry

Road safety encompasses a multifaceted approach, addressing various aspects to reduce accidents and enhance overall safety on the streets. Among the crucial components are helmet awareness, seatbelt usage, and the avoidance of mobile phone use while driving. Prioritizing road safety ensures smoother traffic flow, protects lives, and contributes to overall societal well-being., the department of Public Health Dentistry, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Chennai conducted an awareness camp on 18th January, 2024 addressing on road safety awareness, “road safety is an act of solidarity. Join the efforts and save lives”. The programme was varied out in association with the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals. They took a great participation in creating awareness on risk of not using safety gears while riding two or three wheelers.

Jan to December - 2023 - consolidated Out Reach Profiling - Dept of Public Health Dentistry

Community Outreach Project of the Department, had conducted a total of 249 Camps at different locations in Chennai and selected districts of Tamil Nadu, with a total beneficiary of 30,000+. The Target groups were School children, Corporate employees, Rural population with high unmet treatment needs.

As a part of UBA activity the department has initiated an incremental dental care program for the school children of Chembarambakam village, which has been well appreciated by parents and the school authorities as such.

World oral health month #BE PROUD OF YOUR MOUTH #Awareness drive #School children #Prevention is better

As part of the month long awareness activities, Dept of public health Dentistry, Saveetha Dental College had organised Oral health awareness drive and treatment camp for school children in Arani. Camp scheduled on 23rd and 24th of march screened around, 700 school children and preventive procedures like pit and fissure sealants and topical fluorides were provided onsite.

September Diaries - Outreach - Target camps - publichealthdentsitry

A total of 31 camps were conducted for the month of September, around 2500 people were screened and nearly 300 were delivered oral health care services on spot, active referrals were made from the camp site.

Target groups like construction industry workers, police personnel, Geriatric and institutionalised elderly were taken in to the radar of quality oral care. special children with mental, physical and learning disabilities were addressed and were made aware about the special services available.

August Camp Updates - Target Camps - Passionate team

The team Public Health Dentistry has conducted a total of 29 camps and 1732 people benefitted out of the camps. Active referrals were made and basic oral health care services were delivered on the spot.

Target groups such as Kids with Autism, Cerebral palsy, Mentally retarded, Schizophrenic patients, physically disabled were addressed. the groups were made aware about the significance of oral health and its effect on general health through group and one on one lectures.


Construction labourers - Nehru Indoor stadium - Oral health care - Comprehensive care - Active referrals - 30th July 2022

A team on one intern, one post graduate and 5 interns attended the camp conducted for construction labourers at Nehru indoor stadium on 30th July 2022. a total of 211 workers participated in the camp and benefitted. As they had higher prevalence of tobacco usage, a mass tobacco cessation counselling was given.

Target Group#Out Reach#Oral Health Promotion#SDC#PHD#Compassionate Team

Sometimes Super Heroes live in the heart of small children fighting big battles

Empathy and Compassion are two ardent qualities for a doctor.

Young and vibrant team from the “Department of Public Health dentistry “ work relentlessly to reach such super heroes and make sure their smiles are happy and healthy through their oral health promotional activities.

The steps are small but they are progressive ….. the team is determined to bring in a change in society by making unparalleled, quality oral health care as every individuals right.

Hearing disability children from a special school in Ramapuram and Mentally challenged children and adult from Samarpana trust were benefitted out of the programs conducted in the last half of June 2022.

Mid June Updates#Out Reach#Special Population#Expanding care

First half of June 2022 included care for special population, such as mentally challenged, intellectually disabled and visually challenged people.

in addition to the target population, a fisherman community in Chennai were addressed by the team of doctors and made them aware about the unmet dental treatment needs from a normative need perspective.

a total of more than 200 participants were benefitted out of the program.


World No Tobacco Day - 31st May 2022 - Public Health Dentistry - SDC

The “World no tobacco day” for the year 2022 was observed by three different events.

World No Tobacco Day 2022 was celebrated by the Department of Public Health Dentistry, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai, with the theme “Protect the Environment,” which emphasizes the need to reduce the harmful impact of the tobacco industry on the environment and ecosystem. The program’s priority was to educate and motivate the public regarding preventable death and the relevance of the disease smoking causes. 

As part of the event, an awareness drive was conducted for all the patients who visited the Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals on the day. Video and poster presentations regarding the ill effects of tobacco were shown to the out-patients.

Further, representative pamphlets were distributed among the vast number of bystanders, the general public, and patients gathered in front of the institution. The populace was urged to pledge and contribute against this menace called smoking. Considering the immense impact of smoking among young adults and addicts, a pivotal anti-tobacco counseling activity was carried out by the Tobacco Cessation Cell, Department of Public Health Dentistry at the De-addiction Centre, Keezhkattai, Chennai, in close cooperation with the health staff at the institute.  An awareness gathering, placard distribution, health education, and mass counseling programme were also conducted in Keelachery village. The programme was very implicit, considering the high prevalence of smoking behaviour and pre-cancerous lesions and conditions noted among the subjects. 

Overall, the event was a grant success, with administrative authorities and panchayaths joining hands to provide better screening and anti-tobacco drive in the near future. The department has envisaged a committed effort to helping not only the incoming patients but also to prevent and motivate anti-tobacco practices.

We from the team Public health dentistry whole heartedly thank our media partners; The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle and The Rajasthan Patrica for the articles on our “world no tobacco day event” dated 4.6.2022.

CAN STOP Organization - CAN STOP Initiative - Truck Drivers - 14.5.2022

Dept of Public Health Dentistry has been organising camps along with CAN STOP Association for the past 10 years. With the noble motive to STOP the never ending tobacco pandemic and its life threatening after effects.

This camp on 14.5.2022 was organised for the truck drivers population of Madhavaram, wherein 90% of the population had tobacco habit and active referrals were made for those who had premalignant lesions like, Tobacco pouch keratosis, leukoplakia and Smokers melanosis.

As the part of the community out reach, personalised tobacco cessation counselling were given to the tobacco users. Basic oral health care services like oral prophylaxis, restorations were done for the benefecieries

World hypertension day was also celebrated as part of program, where in the pg incharge distributed pamphlets related to same and the relationship between Tobacco usage and risk of hypertension was highlighted.

Extending Care - Primary Health Care Approach - Energetic team - Quality Oral health Care @ Doorstep

Saveetha Dental College - Public Health Dentistry

“Health is for all”…..

We the team from public health dentistry strive to bridge the gap between the technology and the people for whom we build it. Beyond theoretical preaching, the faculty team are determined to let the students practice primary oral health care.

As a part of the our outreach program, A young and energetic team identified an underprivileged Gypsy Community near shanthipuram, ThirumullaiVayil, Tamil Nadu. Around 101 families were identified in the colony. As a first step oral health needs of the community were assessed using a door to door survey, which also covered surveys determining the barriers to health care utilisation, stress, quality of life and so on.

around 50 people from the community, both children and adults were provided with basic oral health care services and awareness regarding maintenance of oral health care was given onsite to the beneficiaries.

Hope charitable trust - Aminjikarai & Ambattur - Right to smile - Saveetha Smile Squad

The schools for special children, under the Hope Charitable trust were targeted this week. around 96 children were screened, their parents / teachers were educated about the importance of oral health and the treatment options available were discussed in a customised manner for each child.

the programme was wrapped up with hands on training session on proper brushing technique to be followed.

Finishing off a week in style - Treatment camp - Energetic Team - Soulful Sunday

Every year, in the month of April, the department of public health dentistry participates in a mega health camp organised by Rotary club in Chennai. Along with corporate chains like apollo and Shankara nethralaya, the dental team from Saveetha Dental College actively involved in the community based out reach program to create awareness regarding oral health and also rendered basic preventive and curative oral care procedures onsite.

Lighter Moments - Ultimate Satisfaction - Tiniest Participant - Priceless smile

Earth Day - 2022- Industrial Visit - Interactive session - Go Green - Public Health Dentistry - SDC

Earth, the 3rd planet closet to the sun is so beautiful and unique because it sustains life. then why not celebrate the only and only earth we have. The very idea stemmed at an UNESCO conference and was voice by Mr.John McConnell, a peace activist. On this day, rallies, awareness drives and oath taking sessions are conducted around the world.         

Major incidents like Santa Barbara Oil Spill in 1969, and other related events triggered to take this day even more seriously. As a part of the awareness drive, a short interactive video based programme was organised by the team of public health dentistry, which ended with a oath taking session by participants, emphasising on each persons role in protecting the earth.