Dentaid the Dental Charity has delivered its 300th UK clinic of 2023.
Since January, the charity’s mobile dental units have travelled from Jersey to Troon and Newquay to Norwich, providing outreach care for people experiencing homelessness and other hard-to-reach groups.
Dentaid’s volunteers have provided dental care for thousands of the most vulnerable people and carried out more than 10,500 treatments.
Patients have included people experiencing homelessness, head and neck cancer patients, survivors of abuse, refugees, asylum seekers and families living in poverty.
Thanks to hundreds of volunteer dentists and dental nurses, the charity has provided emergency treatments, preventative care, oral cancer screening and dental health advice for people with no other access to care.
The 300th clinic took place at Humankind in Barnsley at a service for people overcoming addictions. One grateful patient said, “Helping people to get back on track can often start with sorting out their mouth. I hope I will now be able to start putting weight back on and start living my life again without being in pain with my teeth.”
In 2022, the charity ran 276 UK clinics. This year, it will be close to 500, and Dentaid continues to see huge growth with demands for its services rising.
Andy Evans, Dentaid’s CEO, said, “This is an amazing achievement, and we are very grateful to everyone who has volunteered in our clinics, fundraised for our work and supported our patients.
“But every month, we receive many more calls from other organisations that really need our help. With more funding, we’ll be able to help more people. We know that dental care can play a key role in helping our homeless and vulnerable patients move on to a new chapter in their lives, and we’re very proud to have helped so many people so far this year.”
For more information visit www.dentaid.org