For the last five years our Dental Outreach Projects are a pioneering challenge being offered by Work the World. We take groups of dentistry students and professionals out to provide free dental healthcare to rural parts of Nepal.
Unlike with our hospital-based elective placements, these global health programs run on set dates during the summer vacation. They are perfect for anyone wanting to gain substantial experience of clinical procedures - especially extractions and restorations - in challenging conditions.
The Dental Outreach Projects are invaluable for both professional and personal development, as well as really standing out on your résumé, and have been designed for qualified dentists and dentistry students during their penultimate or final year of university.
Your placement
The experiences you will have on the dental outreach are likely to be vastly different from anything you are used to. Working from temporary dental clinics you will conduct a screening and referral programme for rural communities that otherwise has little or no access to dental care. You can therefore expect to see far more advanced cases than you would typically see in a domestic setting.
Once a referral has been made, it is then followed up by free treatment, either at our temporary clinic - these are usual set up in a local school or community centre. All dental equipment is provided by Work the World, including dental chairs which are transported to the village.
Itineraries are dependent on the number of cases that come through our doors, and subsequently the number of these that require a referral, but you can certainly expect to be busy; in one day on a previous project in Ghana in 2009 our group screened 186 children and referred 153 of them! Once we have enough referrals, part of the team will begin with the treatments. The remainder continue with the screenings, offering them to other members of the community, if there is time. Both groups will then come together to complete treatments.
Please use the links on the right hand side of this page to access information on the Dental Outreach projects for 2013.
Frequently asked questionsDentistry students discussing her experience of the Dental Outreach project
Free time and travel opportunities
We understand that a global health elective such as our Dental Outreach project is not simply about the work; you are in a new, exciting destination and you are going to want to explore! Fortunately, Work the World placements come complete with lots of like-minded people, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding traveling companions, if you want some, whether that be on weekend trips or an extended period of travel once you have completed the Dental Outreach.
Due to rural nature of the Outreach locations, travel links will not always be as convenient as they might be for students on hospital based internship placements. However, there will always be somewhere to head for during the weekends, be it a beautiful coastline, a mountain retreat or a local traveler hangout. Our local staff will be able to provide you with information to assist you in planning out where you to go and what to do.
Read more about how we workSafety & Security
Our international staff teams work hard to ensure that all aspects of your time away with us run as smoothly as possible. In the run-up to your trip we put a great deal of effort into planning the outreach, informing you of everything you need to know and answering any questions that you may have. Then, from the moment you arrive in your destination until the time that you leave, you should find them a continuous supportive presence.
Once you actually arrive in the country they will meet you from the airport and take you to meet the other students. When you have fully recovered from the journey you will be given a briefing, and depending on logistical considerations you may be either given an orientation of the local area, or taken to the location of the Dental Outreach. Our three key aims are:
- to ease you gently into your new surroundings
- to ensure that you are fully oriented once you have reached any location that you are going to be spending time in
- to make sure that everyone is given an opportunity to get to know everybody else. You are going to be working closely with each other for the next 2 weeks so this last objective is vital!
Dental Outreach Projects
Gallery of the Dental Outreach Projects
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Not only did we treat their dental pain, we aimed to treat all dental disease in order to stabilise the patient’s oral health and prevent them suffering from dental pain in the future.
Cathryn Sherlock, University of Leeds 2012
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Our primary aim of treatment was to get patients out of pain and, provided we had enough time, carry out further treatments.
Emily Hooper, Bristol University 2012
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The idea of travelling to another country, and putting the skills learnt on the course into practice to benefit others really appealed to me.
Anisha Sangha 2012
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