We can all make a difference…
Everyone has something to share with others…

Since being established as the IADS we know we have an obligation towards the promotion of oral health around the globe.

In collaboration with the World Health Organisation in the past we started a Voluntary Work Abroad Project, which was to allow students to experience primary oral healthcare in a developing countries with the goal of providing dental care in isolated and underserved regions of the world. This work with the WHO developed from our participation in the WHO’s Global Consultation on Oral Health Sciences Education during the World Year of Oral Health in 1994. The project allows dental students to experience a totally different approach to primary dental care in a Third World setting. This was primary based on the ”Village Concept”, where medical, dental and pharmaceutical services are provided on one site, in an otherwise remote area. Through the last years we established cooperation with several international dental voluntary organizations, sharing their projects with IADS and offering IADS members various voluntary destinations.

At the moement our members can join already existing programmes in Ecuador, Uganda, Tanzania, Cambodia, Guatemala, Kenya, Sudan, Ghana, India, Zanzibar and Vietnam. Throughout last year alone more than 40 of IADS students and fresh graduates participated in this kind of trips and helped countless of people in need for basic dental care also getting priceless experiences for them as future dentists, treating over 10 000 patients.

Every day the circle of projects is getting bigger and IADS members are also getting more experienced. We are happy to promote this best attribute of humanity among our members and encourage them to come to people’s in need help making them smile.

Aims of the Project

• To provide oral health care and oral disease prevention, education and supplies to under-served populations in developing nations
• Train their local people to take responsibility for the continuation of the preventive education and care and the meaning of basic dental prophylaxis
• To create awareness amongst students from all over the world about circumstances of life in rural areas and lack of basic dental services there
• To develop problem solving skills, research abilities and knowledge of participating students about field work realities as a complement to university education
• To promote intersectorial teamwork as a basic element of sustainable development, thus serving as a complement to university education.
• To improve socio-economic as well as living conditions in the rural areas.

Dental problems in the project locations:

• Lack of dental services.
• Poor oral hygiene.
• Low benefit from existing preventive measures due to absence of dental public health education.
• Traditional managment of diseases.
• High prevalence of dental problems especially dental caries and periodontal diseases.
• Lack of mother and child dental care.

Whoever goes to a voluntary work project knows it is one of their best experiences they could have as students. Voluntary Work Projects allow a student to go to  another country and participate in an ongoing project to help the health of a local population, instead of being in a Faculty. The work differs from project to project: in some places, it is simply oral hygiene promotion and it may be organised by the dental faculty of a local university, who provide the health care plan, and students can participace in it when they attend. Another option is to join existing dental volunteer program organized by volunteer organizations.

All the time in IADS we work on establishing new project and offering our members new volunteer destinations. We also organize own volunteer initiatives, collect students reports, popularize dental volunteering among our members and enhance them to participate in outreach trips. We always try to join our international meetings with volunteer field trips.
 

Some of IADS initiatives:

Medical Field Trips in Sudan

Medical field trips are directed to rural area of Sudan where people are desperate to dental services. The association of dental student’s university of Khartoum (ADSUK) used to do these medical field trips annually twice and sometimes more. They have big experience and thein organizers are well trained.

Sudan

 Medical Field Trip 2006 was organized for participants of Annual IADS World Congress in Khartoum as a post-congress trip.

During Medical Field Trip 2006 IADS participants together with Sudanese students were divided into 4 groups each supervised by qualified dentist. Volunteers were working in villages around WAD MADANI city all day till sunset. First patient were diagnosed in outpatient room and then sent to proper one: surgery, perio, prosthetic, conservative room. During Medical Field Trip 2006 around 4000 patients were treated.
 

Dental Campaign, Egypt 2008

During the Post-congress in Egypt, Alexandria in 2008 Dental Campaign for IADS members was organized on 18th of August in Ikingy Mariout. A previous parliament spokesman Meragea Ibrahim gave us his garden, his house and his men and offered help in organizing. There were 56 participants.

Egypt

The work done was mainly diagnosing, scalings, extractions and referrals. It was mainly pain relieving program. Dental Health Education was done for children and tooth brushes and pastes from Signal 2 were distributed to the children (21)

Summary:
Patients: 69
Scaling performed: 27
Extractions: 23
Referrals: 54
 

Mission Clinic, Ecuador 2007

Ecuador

A mission clinic in Ecuador accepts dental students and dentists mainly from Germany, but other nationalities might be also accepted. I took part at this project during my period of presidency in 2007. I got precious experiences of dentistry plus the lifestyle of the native south americans. We did extractions and fillings as well as small interim prothesis done by ourselfs in the dental laboratory. Juliane Gnoth
 

Misahualli Dental Volunteering, Ecuador 2007

The trip to Misahualli for us was a great experience. This trip gave us the chance to see how dentistry is practiced in communities with very limited resources in particular remote areas of Ecuador. The dental work done in Misahualli can be considered as basic procedures such as extractions, resin composite fillings, exams (No X-rays).

Ecuador

In total there were two units available: one was a fixed chair with no light that had many signs of repairs, the other unit was a portable set which was used in the two days that we spent in the communities along side of the Napo River. The two local dentist of this community were extremely friendly and passionate about helping their people, but lack of dental supplies and instruments seemed to be their biggest obstacle. They had never worked with assistances before so our volunteer work was very useful for them. Under the supervision of local dentists we got to do some dentistry such as injecting local anesthetics, and relatively simple extractions. We could have done more if they had more units available, but not having enough clean instruments was the biggest problem. In many cases just holding a flashlight for the doctor was the best help due to the lack of light source.
Sean Bastani & Shamim Moslemi

 International Exchange Officer – IEO