Elective project in Peru

Fourth year students Sarah Khalil, Sapna Patel and Amreeta Aytain will visit Arequipa in Peru with overseas elective experts Work the World.

Peru suffers from a lack of portable purified water, which means that many local people rely on sugary drinks for their liquid intake. As a consequence, incidences of dental disease are high and visits to the dentist are rare – usually only when the pain becomes unbearable.

While Peru has private dentists, treatments are expensive and public dentistry is limited – resulting in long waiting times for those unable to afford private dental fees. According to the World Health Organization there are 1.2 dentists for every 10,000 people in Peru – this compares with 5.2 per 10,000 in the UK.

The students will be working in two hospitals: one is the oldest hospital in Peru and the other one of the largest. Both will offer the students useful experience in busy hospital departments, looking at a range of cases including extractions, scaling, fillings and maxillo-facial surgery.