Trainee Dental Nurse Completes Uganda Mission
A trainee dental nurse from Bourne End Dental in Buckinghamshire has returned from a successful trip to Uganda.
Kelly Smith travelled to Uganda, one of the world’s poorest countries, to provide much-needed dental care for more than one thousand people. Kelly took part in fundraising events to raise £600 for the trip, which was coordinated by dental charity, Dentaid.
During the two-week trip, Kelly spent time working in an orphanage and helped to provide pain relief for hundreds of people and also helped out at a youth rehabilitation centre and visited a number of schools in the area. As well as providing pain relief, Kelly also took time to talk to local people and communities about oral health and oral hygiene.
The trip also provided the opportunity to talk to people about the practice of oral mutilation among infants, which is very common in Uganda, as people believe that pulling teeth out will help the child to combat illnesses such as diarrhoea and village healers believe that erupting teeth are ‘tooth worms’, which cause children to die if they are not extracted. Kelly was part of a team of people who talked to parents about the dangers associated with pulling teeth out without anaesthetic.
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