DENTAL Hygienist, Yvonne Wood is off to Tanzania for the fifth time on June 22 on a Dental Volunteer Programme with the dental charity Bridge2Aid.

The saying ‘Africa gets under your skin and into your blood’ is certainly true for Yvonne from Yvonne Wood Dental Hygiene, The Courtyard at Glansevern.

She says she has witnessed first-hand the desperate need for emergency dental care in rural Tanzania and is looking forward to another worthwhile visit.

The Dental Volunteer Programme has two phases; Phase one is a regular hands on teaching programme carried out by a team of UK dentists, therapists, hygienists and nurses who educate and train Tanzanian clinical health care workers (clinical officers) in remote rural Tanzania where there is no dental provision at all.

They are trained to carry out emergency dental treatment and to effectively give oral health education to their Tanzanian people within their rural setting.

This visit in June will be the second time Yvonne has been on the more advanced Phase 2 training programme where she will help to train regional dental officers of Tanzania to train their own local clinical officers with Bridge2Aid’s robust training programme so that even more clinical officers can be trained in emergency dental care in the rural regions.

This Phase 2 Programme is one of the charities key advances in helping the country develop a more sustainable emergency dental provision and has been a huge success as it means the people living in the rural communities have even better access to safe and effective dental care.

Yvonne says: "This is why I like this particular dental charity as it does not only involve us just treating people in need but also involves training so that when we return home the good work can continue and more people are helped even when we are not there."

Yvonne shares her life changing experiences, thoughts and stories with from her trips to Tanzania.

She is hugely passionate about making the work of this charity known so it can be even better supported to help more of these people in Tanzania suffering from unnecessary dental pain.

Dental Treatment Worldwide: More than 70 per cent of the world’s population has no access to dental pain relief, leaving millions to face a daily battle with pain in the toughest of life circumstances. There is a desperate need to tackle oral disease, infection and chronic pain in communities throughout the developing world – to enable people to work, attend school and care for their families. Bridge2aid is a dental charity aiming to change this, their vision is a world free from dental pain.

Bridge2Aid was founded 13 years ago. It runs hands-on teaching programmes, carried out by a team of UK dentists, hygienists and nurses, who educate, and train Tanzanian rural health care workers called Clinical Officers in emergency dental treatment, tooth extraction, oral health education and sterilisation procedures. If they pass the course, the Clinical Officers, can carry on treating patients after the UK team returns home making this a very sustainable approach. A kit, consisting of basic dental tools, a pressure cooker and kerosene stove, is supplied to them to enable them to continue with this. Most clinics do not have running water or electricity, so the programme really needs to be completely self-sustaining whilst still ensuring sterilisation is achieved.

Why are Bridge2Aid needed in Tanzania?

In rural Tanzania, dental provision is very limited which means some people are living with excruciating dental pain for weeks, months and even years. In desperation, they are seeking treatment and tooth extractions from untrained people including ‘witch doctors’ which results in complications, bleeding, infection and further pain. It is not unknown for people to carry out DIY extractions.

In some parts of the world, it is still possible to die from toothache…

A week before Yvonne’s team arrived in Tanzania they heard of man who died because of an untreated dental abscess which caused a severe infection. His death could have been prevented.

Another story was a Tanzanian man arrived at the clinic with a painful swelling that was leaking pus from his cheek on the right side of his face.

He explained that a local man had tried to remove his painful tooth with a screwdriver. This broke some of the tooth but left much of it remaining to become infected.

The nearest hospital to this man was three to four hours away and he could not afford the travel, let alone pay for the treatment he needed.

He suffered immeasurably for months, not being able to work or provide for his family during this time. The Bridge2Aid team could put an end to his misery by removing the tooth. The relief and gratitude he displayed following his free treatment at a Bridge2Aid clinic reinforces the importance of their humanitarian mission.

Tanzanian Rural Clinical Officers

So far, over the last 13 years, Bridge2Aid has successfully trained more than 500 clinical officers giving access of care to more than 4 million people. This provides the Tanzanian people with a long-term, but most importantly, sustainable solution to this problem. When a team of Bridge2Aid volunteers return to the UK, they can be confident knowing that a legacy is been left behind. This is because when each team leaves Tanzania, they will have left these Clinical Officers with the skills and knowledge to provide emergency dental treatment. This is mainly in the form of extractions but also, they have the ability to teach people within their communities how to look after their teeth to avoid dental diseases.

People’s lack of dental knowledge and awareness is evident when examining their teeth. Rampant tooth decay is common among both children and adults; and many adults are also suffering from advanced gum disease with bleeding gums, loose or missing teeth and bad breath.

These clinical officers have at least 10,000 people to look after within their community and their daily duties include delivering babies, dealing with communicable diseases like Malaria and TB, pneumonia, gastrointestinal diseases, skin diseases and general medical emergencies. After the Bridge2Aid programme they are then able to also provide much needed emergency dental extractions included to their long list of duties.

Yvonne says “I feel honoured and privileged to take part in these Bridge2Aid Dental Volunteer Programmes as I have witnessed the suffering of these people first hand, it is a very satisfying feeling knowing that I am able to help in this way.

"It always amazed me that we could travel ‘off road’ to a sparse looking clinic in the depths of rural Tanzania to find a long queue of people patiently waiting for us to arrive, they are quite desperate. Most people arrive on foot, walking several hours just to reach the clinic; this included children, elderly and pregnant women.

"There are many myths and beliefs amongst the people living in these rural communities. There is a belief among Tanzanian communities that if people eat before a dental extraction they are likely to experience a more difficult and painful tooth extraction. This is obviously not true and causes the people extreme fatigue, exhaustion and they readily faint at the clinic whilst having treatment.

"We are aiming to dispel these common beliefs to ensure people are not experiencing these problems. It is very rewarding to be able to use my dental skills and experience to teach these Clinical Officers in Tanzania.

"The people are incredibly grateful for the advice and listen intently to what is being taught. It makes a significant difference to their lives and the satisfaction I get at doing this is priceless.

Benefits to Volunteering

Volunteering is not just giving, I have benefitted personally in so many ways I could never have imagined. Working in extreme working conditions develops a close team and as a result I have made some wonderful lifelong friendships. The team work is very uplifting as the team achievements are huge. It is a voyage of self-discovery and it certainly puts life into perspective and our worries seem little in comparison. On my return to the UK, I appreciate clean running water straight from the tap, a hot shower and toilets that flush (!), washing machines, tarmac roads and transport, the variety of our foods, theatres, cinemas and restaurants”.

Yvonne is now part of the Clinical Advisory Group with Bridge2Aid to develop the Oral Health Education programme.

Yvonne says, “I felt privileged to be asked to join the group as we will be further developing the oral health education part of the programme to better reflect the culture, lifestyle and challenges these people face daily”. Yvonne has great hope for the Oral Health Education program as she has observed how receptive and keen Tanzanian people are in learning about the prevention of dental diseases, they truly value and take on the advice given. Tanzanians take this knowledge away with them along with a free toothbrush and tube of toothpaste; all of which deep gratitude is expressed.

Children of Tanzania

Yvonne says “I was overwhelmed by the way Tanzanian children lived their lives; their resilience to immense hardship and limited resources is admirable.

The children can walk two to three hours a day just to attend school, ensuring that they make the most of their return journey by collecting firewood and water for their families, simultaneously carrying schoolbooks on their heads.

"They even carry whole bunches of bananas on their heads which I tried with little success!

"Children of Tanzania have big responsibilities compared to many children of the UK, especially in caring for their younger siblings. The children do not have a sufficient diet to help fuel these extra demands in life. Their luxuries and comforting treats in life are cola, sugarcane and pepe(sweets) unknowingly to them, are going to be the root cause of their dental decay and pain.

"Another thing which really stood out for me was their feet, their worn, tattered bare feet really did say it all. These children work incredibly hard every day just to scrape by but they do not complain. This is because they know no different, this is their way of life.

"Their back breaking work included not only looking after their younger siblings but fetching and carrying heavy water from the well, looking after the family livestock, tending to their crops, digging and weeding.

"Even just the challenges and struggle of daily life was a real eye opener. I was always aware that many of the people could also be enduring dental pain whilst completing such work and daily tasks but know that it is something Bridge2Aid aim to tackle. This will help improve their overall quality of life!”

Yvonne’s return to Tanzania - Phase 2 Training of Regional Dental Officers (RDO’S)/

This phase of training is very exciting trip as this is a whole new phase of training. I join a team to implement new training methods with Regional Dental Officers (RDO’s) in Tanzania; of which there are 24 of them throughout the whole of Tanzania. On this trip, instead of Bridge2Aid volunteers training six Tanzanian Clinical Officers we worked with the six RDO’s to be able to deliver Bridge2Aid’s intense two-week training programme to the Clinical Officers themselves.

Yvonne describes her experiences and trips to Tanzania as “one of the highlights of my whole dental career” and is keen to share the work of this charity Bridge2Aid.This is a different approach in that training for sustainability is key, furthermore there is robust evaluation and monitoring of the programme to ensure quality of teaching and follow up of the Clinical Officers.

If you would like to support this in any way please visit Yvonne’s just giving page; thank you.

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/yvonne-wood5

For more information about the work of this dental charity Bridge2Aid, please go to their website at; www.bridge2aid.org