The motto of SIBAR Institute of Dental Sciences is ‘Service, Knowledge & Kindness’. Serving the communities translates to reaching out to the underserved areas, identifying the oral health needs of the people in these areas, and making efforts to reduce the oral disease burden both by providing treatment services as necessary and focusing on preventive measures. SIDS believes that extension activities are a reflection of the social commitment and responsibility we hold and place strong emphasis on such activities by integrating with the communities and making them active players in the quest of improving oral health related quality of life in the field practice area of the institution.
As a part of extension activities and rural outreach programs, the Department of PublicHealth Dentistry of the institution held 716 outreach programs between 2003 and 2020. The institution takes pride in the fact that more than 3 lakh people were screened for oral health problems and 9,727 subjects were provided with necessary treatment services at the outreach sites. More than 58,000 referrals were done as necessary for comprehensive care provision at the institution. As a part of these outreach programs, health education, in general, and oral health education, in particular, are provided to the communities besides oral screening, treatment, and referral services. The institution has also established three satellite clinics at Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU), Namburu, and Chebrolu, the activities of which are supervised by the Department of Public Health Dentistry. ANU has student strength of more than 5000 and is a destination university for diverse students from Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Bhutan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Libya. The institution’s satellite center at ANU caters to the needs of all the students, teaching and non-teaching faculty. All treatment services are offered at the satellite centers and specialist consultations from the institution are sought as necessary.
From the year 2006, the Department of Pediatric Dentistry of the institution has conducted 480 school camps where 108739 children were screened for oral health problems. The institution gladly acknowledges that the department has been offering these services across a wide geographical area and also among schools belonging to different socio-economic tiers, thereby capturing the oral health status of children from diverse backgrounds comprehensively. The department also upkeeps the individual school dental records and track changes in the annual incidence of oral health problems through its follow-up visits. As a part of these extension activities, health education, in general, and oral health education, in particular, are provided to the school children besides oral screening, treatment, and referral services.