Dental Volunteer Programme

One of our roles for Bridge2aid in Mwanza will be helping to run the Dental Volunteer Programme (DVP).  This programme has been running since 2004 during which time over 160 clinical officers have been trained in emergency dentistry.

What is DVP and how does it work?

Well, if you live in rural Tanzania you'll have some kind of health clinic or dispensary in your locality.  The one pictured here is a particularly nice one in Lugeye.  These clinics serve a population of 10-15,000 people providing basic health care services........but no dental care.  If you have toothache the best these clinics can do is give you antibiotics and suggest you take a journey into the nearest large town or city and find a dentist.  The UK has one dentist for every 2500 people, in Tanzania the ratio is 1:300,000 people.  For many Tanzanians, dentistry is too far away and too expensive for them to afford, so many live with toothache day after day.  DVP aims to change this by giving basic emergency dental skills to the clinical officers that work in these rural dispensaries and health clinics, so that when someone comes in with toothache, there is someone on hand who is competent to remove that tooth with good technique and sterile instruments.

During DVP, a team of dentists and nurses head out to one of these rural clinics with the aim of training clinical officers.  News of the dental clinic spreads, so that there are plenty of patients waiting for their painful teeth to be removed each day.  Tanzanian Bridge2aid staff like Innocent (pictured below) interview the patients and organise them in a waiting area ready to be seen in the clinic.

Patients then come into the clinic and the training dentist (in green) trains the Tanzanian clinical officer (in white) to safely and competently remove teeth from the patient.  Very simple and it works!  

Training in progress

The Clinic in full swing

Sterilisation room.
Instruments are washed and then steam sterilised in a pressure cooker on a kerosine stove.  
It's just as effective as using an autoclave. 

The result. 3 days intensive theory training, 6 days hands on practical training and the clinical officers are competently removing teeth and able to serve their local population.  Currently 1.75 million people have access to someone who can safely remove a painful tooth in their locality as a direct result of Bridge2aid's clinical officer training programme.  We're excited to be part of this initiative as it continues to grow over the next couple of years.

DVP 21

Have a look at the end of DVP (Dental Volunteer Programme) report at http://www.bridge2aid.org/cm/news/622

Mwanza - City centre

City of Mwanza on the shore of lake Victoria

The Bismark Rock, one of many amazing rock formations in Mwanza region

The city centre is a busy, bustling, rapidly developing place

View of Mwanza from the lake

Karibu! (welcome)

 Since we actually have some followers of our blogsite, I (Paul) decided this morning that I should actually write something and begin to get to grips with blogging.  For those of you who are expert bloggers, a little patience may be required since we're new to this whole thing, but looking forward to picking it up as we go along with a little guidance (thanks Sarah).

Let me invite you into the world that over the next few months will become our home.  I'm sitting this morning in an African Hotel (Vizano) in downtown Mwanza.  Cars pass on the busy street outside, ladies carrying all manner of items on their heads, people smiling, many just watching the day go by.  A TV in the corner of the room is showing a dreadful soap opera, dubbed into swahili, there's hustle, bustle, noise, smells - all the things that if you've travelled in sub saharan africa will be very familiar, but are so different from Britain.

I've just finished co leading a Dental Volunteer Programme (DVP) where we successfully trainined 12 clinical officers in emergency dentistry.  Basically this means that 120,000 people in villages around northern Tanzania now have someone in their locality who can safely and competently remove decayed and painful teeth.  Very satisfying.  Jesus came to bring us life to the full, and part of living this full life is bringing help to those who need it.

We'll try to post some pics over the next few days, so keep an eye out for updates!