‘Project Healthy Smiles Jamaica’ Outreach Project Starts National Tour
Miss Jamaica Festival Queen 2021, Dr. Dominique Reid, a dentist, has launched Phase 2 of Project Healthy Smiles Jamaica (PHSJ) her national outreach project, which will see the Queen travelling across the island to give free preventative dental health care to students in coming weeks.
Kereece Rowe, a nine year old Grade 4 student at the May Pen Primary School has her teeth inspected by Miss Jamaica Festival Queen, Dr. Dominique Reid, a dentist, during the Clarendon Stop of her Project Healthy Smiles Jamaica national Project Tour on Sunday, February 6. (Photo courtesy of JCDC)The national tour was launched on Sunday, February 6 with its first stop being the parish of Clarendon, where Dr. Reid and her team of dental students were able to provide 85 children at the May Pen Primary School with free dental examinations, teeth cleanings and fluoride treatments.
“I am so excited to start phase two of my national project, in which I aim to provide 590 students from various parishes across the island with free preventative dental care. I chose the number 590 as it aligns with Jamaica’s 59th year of Independence, which is the year I was crowned,” Dr. Reid said.
“This project is important to me because I feel that as a dentist with a national platform to provide outreach, it is my duty to educate the nation’s children and provide as many of them with dental care, especially the children who really need it. The satisfaction I got from the execution of the first stop of the project in Clarendon on Sunday was tremendous, and for a lot of the children it was their first time being seen or treated by a dentist, even those in Grade 6, about to exit Primary School. The unfortunate reality is that access to dental care is limited for a lot of our children, and so I was happy to be able to provide that care for them,” Dr. Reid continued.
Dr. Reid and her team will hit the road again this Sunday, February 13 for the next stop on her National Project tour, the parish of St. Catherine.
Phase 1 of the Project Healthy Smiles Jamaica national project was completed in December 2021, and saw the Festival Queen giving interactive talks on the importance of oral healthcare and hygiene called “Tooth Tour” Sessions to hundreds of students across the island via Zoom.
The National Project is supported by Lasco Financial Services, with associated sponsorship from Pharmacon International, Aval Medical Supplies and Disposables, Prophy Paste, Ligunea Family Dental, Three Angels Pharmacy, Jus Smiles Dental (Junction, St. Elizabeth) and Dr. Irving McKenzie, the Chief Dental Officer for Jamaica.
The Miss Jamaica Festival Queen Competition’s national outreach project is a time-honored tradition and stipulation of the competition, which requires the reigning Festival Queen to use her newly acquired national platform as cultural ambassador to assist with community development and nation building.
