In the last month the charity, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary next year, has sent a team of dental professionals to Uganda, two DentaidBoxes to Burkina Faso, and continued to support projects in Uganda and Kenya.
During the two week volunteering trip to Uganda, the team will treat hundreds of adults and children who have no access to dental care. Their trip includes running clinics in the slums of Jinja and working in remote rural locations running oral health education projects and treating people in pain.
Dentaid has also sent two DentaidBoxes - entire dental surgeries that fit into a wheelie bin and can be operated without water or electricity - to Burkina Faso. The delivery was initially delayed by the thwarted military coup but the boxes are now on their way to the capital Ouagadougou so they can be used in clinics. The boxes were kindly sponsored by the Exeter BDA Section and the Rotary Club of Romsey Test.
In Kenya, a Dentaid chair and equipment is being used by a local dentist who is running extra clinics on Saturdays for patients who cannot afford to pay for treatment. The charity has also provided a custom made DentaidBag to carry the dental chair making it easier to reach remote communities.
And in Uganda Dentaid has supported several community outreach projects where dentists have performed extractions, fillings, scaling and preventative treatments in addition to children's teeth screening in schools.
Manchester dentists head to Calais camps
A team of dentists is heading to the Calais refugee camps to provide emergency dentistry for hundreds of migrants after teaming up with the international dental charity Dentaid.
The team is being led by Manchester pharmacist Kiran Ismail who was inspired to help after hearing about the plight of the refugees who had fled their homes and travelled across Europe.
“I knew I wanted to do something to help these people but I wanted to identify what their most urgent needs are,” said Kiran. “At the moment there is very little dental provision and people are arriving every day suffering from abscesses which are causing terrible pain. My brother is a dentist and we soon gathered a team of people who can practice in France.”
The team will travel to Calais on Friday, October 16. They will set up a dental surgery in a caravan in the so called “jungle camp”, which has become home to 4,000 people, and have a marquee that will act as a waiting area. “We are expecting to see a huge amount of people, many of whom will have been suffering for a long time,” added Kiran. “We want this to become a proper dental surgery.”
The team will use equipment provided by Dentaid, a dental charity that sends volunteer dentists and equipment all over the world. The charity has provided a DentAid box – an entire dental surgery that fits into a wheelie bin and can be operated without electricity and water – along with other essential equipment.
One of Dentaid’s trustees Jonathan Gollings recently returned from Calais where he was struck by the number of people needing emergency dental treatment. The charity is hoping to find more dentists who are registered to practice in France in the coming weeks.
“The support we’ve had in such a short space of time has been fantastic,” said Kiran. “People have been very generous in helping us to provide dentistry which is something these refugees desperately need.”
To support the team visit https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/refugeedentalaid or text teeth Calais to 70660.
To find out more about Dentaid visit www.dentaid.org
With more volunteering trips planned to Uganda, Zimbabwe and Kenya next year and a busy programme of fundraising activities, Dentaid has many opportunities for British dental professionals to support its work. To find out more please visit www.dentaid.org or call 01794 324249.