Dundee dentist joins training mission to tanzania to help relieve pain and suffering

07 February, 2017 / infocus
 

A dentist from Dundee was part a team of UK clinicians who flew to Africa recently to provide emergency dental training that will enable local health workers to free their communities from pain.

Laura-Anne Johnston from mydentist in Fintry spent two weeks in Tanzania training rural clinical officers to safely extract teeth. The visit, which was organised by Bridge2Aid, also saw more than 500 patients treated.

Laura-Anne said: “I was made aware of the problems that the country has and how important this training would be to the local community, as many people cannot afford to have dental treatment and therefore will put up with chronic pain for months and even years.

“The most rewarding part was knowing that I wasn’t just going to be doing charity work for two weeks, then leaving the locals with no more access to dentistry. I knew that we’d be leaving the local population in safe hands if they ever need any future extractions.

“Over the two clinics we treated about 500 patients. Some of them had been suffering with chronic toothache for months and even years – one lady I saw had toothache for three years. They are usually treated with antibiotics and herbal remedies, or nothing at all.”

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