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Restoring Smiles - Changing Lives
A dental & development charity working towards a world free from dental pain
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The opportunity of a lifetime - in partnership with The Dentistry Show 2013 - 11th January 2013
In partnership with the Dentistry Show, we are offering you the chance to win the experience of a lifetime with a sponsored place on our Dental Volunteer Programme.
Travelling to East Africa for approximately 14 days, the winning dental professional will work alongside other B2A volunteers to treat patients whilst training local healthcare workers in emergency dentistry in Tanzania's rural communities.
Investing time and skill into the training of the local healthcare workers provides access to dental pain relief for thousands of people. With 75% of the world's population currently living without access to a Dentist, Bridge2Aid's focus on sustainability means that there are over 2 million people now living with access in rural Tanzania because of our Dental Volunteer Programme.
Last year's winner, Maddie Braithwaite, is a Dental Therapist, but due to regulations in Tanzania, volunteered as a
Dental Nurse on a team that worked in the Kahama District of the Lake Zone.
Maddie was previously interested in using her skills to contribute and explains that âVolunteering was something I had thought about for some time and wondered how best to go about it, but most importantly, it had to make sense. I didn't just want to provide a "sticking plaster" approach. Sustainability was an important tick box for me.â Winning the Dentistry Show competition gave her a great opportunity to get involved.
During the programme, Maddie and her fellow team members trained 5 local healthcare workers in emergency dentistry and treated over 300 patients. Working without water or electricity, each day Maddie and the team would set up workstations and begin treating the local community who were often already waiting before the team had arrived. With no running water to clean the used instruments, they used water from the well to wash the equipment before placing them in one of two pressure cookers on kerosene burners.
As with any charitable project, sustainability is essential. âAll the team had a role to play in training the healthcare worker so that by the end they were competent in administering local anaesthetic, extracting teeth, delivering consistent oral health advice and were aware of the importance of controlling cross infectionâ says Maddie. âBy the sixth day of practical training, the workers sat an exam to determine whether they passed the training programme, or need more tuition. During those six days we saw over 300 patients, extracted more than 1000 teeth, and most importantly, trained 5 healthcare workers in emergency dentistry!â
Maddie's advice to people who are considering volunteering with Bridge2Aid? 'I would absolutely love to volunteer on such a programme again in the future. For anyone considering it, I would reccommend not to go with an agenda. Live in the moment. We have one life, if it feels right - do it!'
To submit your competition application, please email dentistryshowcompetition@bridge2aid.org and explain, in no more than 250 words, why you should be chosen to win a sponsored place on DVP. Applicants must have registered for attendance at the Dentistry Show before submitting an application, taking place on the 1st and 2nd of March 2013 at the NEC Birmingham. All entries must be confirmed by visiting the B2A stand (P52) at the Dentistry Show. The winning dental professional will be chosen on Saturday 2nd March. The winning dental professional will be subject to B2A's usual acceptance policies.
Terms and conditions are available here.
Kindly sponsored by:
