Our last evolunteering day started very early..welll for some of us as we were to pick up Reggies team by 6am. Eventually by 6.30 we left with the team who had arrived and set off for a long windy road towards the mountains. Although it was only 25km, the road was very narrow and full of pot holes so it took time. At one point, the locals had to move their market stalls to let the bus through!
We arrived at the foothills and immediatly got to work setting up. We had learned a lot from our first clinic and the team had lots of ideas to improve the efficiency of the day. Firstly Gary and John would register 6 people and then send them through to the waiting area we had set up. This group was then taken into Oral Health Education and Nutrition advice. This was one of the biggest sucesses of the trip, as on day 1 of the clinic, Anette did a sterling job of teaching, with the help of a translator. Today that same translator took over the sessions and would not let anyone leave without showing them how to brush and giving advice on diet before handing out the toothpaste and toothbrushes. This really is what Dentaid is all about. Not simply turning up and helping for a few days, but to help give the skills needed for the local community to help themselves.
After oral health ed, the patients were then taken into the dentists. Today, rather than everyone in a single room, out team had set up to make sure we had more room. 2 dental rooms were set up with 3 dentists in each. So the UK team had 3 teams. Mark and Janet, Carol and Anetts and Aisha and Jane. Watching them work was amazing for us non-dentists and made us so proud to be a part of the team.
Today we had a lot less support staff so Penny and Dani took on the role of cleaning and sterilising the instruments. I'm not sure how many of our readers have performed this task but they were in a very small room with a toilet having to scrub the instruments in washing powder before getting them into the steriliser. Neither of these 2 ladies had ever had anything to do with dentisrty before and I know thew whole team wants to say thank you. The day would not have happened without you.
We saw 152 patients in total which was lower than we expected but due to the very heavy rain none of the tribes people made it down from the hills.
A few highlights for you!!
The UK dentist room in the afternoon had become known as the extraction room with a few patients being a bit nervous to come in!
We had a 6 year old girl who was the size of a 3 year old as she was no malnourished. She had been abandoned by her mum and so grandma was attempting to raise her and everyone of her teeth was decayed. We hid this case from Janet as it had me in tears so goodness knows what would have happened if she had seen it.
We also had an 84 year old lady who had all black rotten teeth, high blood presure and godness knows what. She wanted Aisha to take out 3 very wobbly teeth which helped her be painfree for a little while at least. She then jumped on the back of her grandsons moped and went off home.....I kid you not.
After a very long day, we headed home for a quiet dinner as a few of the team have fallen at the last hurdle with tummy bugs. However a fun dinner was had by those who were well enough. Let me just say.....a hose pipe and rescue boat featured!!!
The final day of the trip was a well earned rest in Halong Bay on board a fabulous Junk. Swiming in the warm water, eating too much and sleeping in the sun was just what the dentist ordered, and at only 24 hours, not too much to ask I think for this hard working bunch.
I have been proud to call myself part of this amazing team, who have never stopped laughing, working, supporting each other and giving to the local community. Hope you have enjoyed our blog, and if you fancy joining next years trip to India or Morocco then just email me at diane@dentaid.org.
I am not off to Cambodia for a few days to visit some Dentaid projects old and new so if you are interested, then please keep reading for the next few days.
Final note to my team, had a day in bangkok today and kept attempting to round up 9 strangers to take with me....sad but true. Di xx
About Me
- Dentaid Overseas Challenge
- Dentaid is one of the leading oral health charities in the world, having supported 210 oral health programmes in 58 countries. In recent years, the charity has expanded its work from just supplying refurbished dental surgeries for charitable projects, to playing vital roles in oral health promotion. For example establishing innovative school prevention programmes, and initiating various training schemes encompassing disciplines from equipping rural health workers to carry out basic dental care in remote communities to teaching governments on fluoride advocacy and writing national oral health strategies. Dentaid is also working hard to lobby governments, companies and health organisations to adopt more oral health friendly policies and practices.