Living goods is an “Avon-like” network of franchised community health promoters who provide health education and earn a living selling essential health products door-to-door at prices affordable to the poor.
Biodent Clínica Dental
Biodent Clínica Dental
For-profit
Year launched: 2010Existing or expanding (post-pilot)
Approach
Target geography
Target Population
Target income level
- Bottom 20%
- Lower-middle income (20-40%)
Health focus
- Dentistry
Summary
Biodent comprises a low-cost dental clinic that offers high-quality treatment using advanced technologies, an in-school education program that teaches dental health to students, teachers, and parents, and a program for professional development with local universities.Program goals
Biodent aims to bring quality dental services to the poor through low-cost franchised clinics throughout Oaxaca, Mexico, and to equip children, parents, and teachers with the information they need for preventative dental care through educational programs in schools.
Key program components
Dental care in Mexico has long been an important public health issue because dental care is limited to higher economic classes in society. Consequently, most healthcare development initiatives either ignore dental health because of its perception as a luxury and focus on general medical health issues, or they only provide quick fixes to dental health issues, such as a free filling or extraction. Poor dental health has been long associated with cardiovacular diseases, diabetes, and bacterial pneumonia. By ignoring dental health treatment and education, the general health of the poor, who often suffer from a range of health issues, can never be expected to improve.
Biodent's clinics bring affordable dental services, including laser technology, to the poor in Oaxaca, Mexico, through a social franchise model. To provide in-school preventative dental health education, Biodent further intervenes in public education insitutions to teach children, parents, and teachers about dental health. This approach changes dental health from a topic normally only accessible to those who can afford to see a dentists to a comm public school subject like history or math. Finally, Biodent is developing a professional development program with local universities focused on dental health.
Scale
Financials
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