Free dental care urged for refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong, who cannot earn money to pay for treatment
- Refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong are denied the right to work, so cannot earn money to pay for dental treatment, causing huge suffering for some
- NGO Justice Centre Hong Kong has launched a Healthy Smile for Refugees campaign to urge dentists to treat refugees and asylum seekers pro bono
Pain has become a way of life for Annie (not her real name), an asylum seeker from Indonesia who has lived in Hong Kong since 2014.
For almost seven years, the 32-year-old has suffered acute toothache caused by an impacted wisdom tooth.
According to the International Dental Centre, which has clinics throughout Hong Kong, the problem is caused when a wisdom tooth – the teeth at the back of the mouth, also known as third molars – become impacted because there is not enough room for them to come in or develop normally. In Annie’s case, one of her three wisdom teeth failed to break through the gum.
Symptoms include tender or bleeding gums, jaw pain and swelling, inflammation and difficulty opening the mouth. Annie has experienced them all.
“The pain is not just in my jaw,” she says, cradling the swollen left side of her face. “Some days it’s in my eyes, head and neck. I’ve also had fever,” she says, adding she can’t open her mouth very wide and has difficulties talking. She has to eat on the right side of her mouth and delicately navigates the area when brushing.