Dental outreach projects

Add a new challenge to your dentistry work placement or elective by spending a couple of weeks on one of our pioneering dental outreach projects in Ghana, India, Nepal and Zanzibar. Working from temporary dental clinics you will conduct a screening and referral programme for a community that otherwise has little or no access to dental health care. This is then followed up by free treatment either at a well-equipped surgery, temporary hospital treatment rooms or at a village clinic in which we provide the dental equipment.

Working with rural communities is a great experience and the dental outreach programme is ideal for elective students or recently qualified dentists wanting to gain substantial experience of clinical procedures, especially extractions and restorations, in challenging conditions. The dentistry outreach project will be invaluable for both professional and personal development, as well as really standing out on your C.V.

Project itinerary

Itineraries are dependent on the number of cases that visit us and need referring, but as a guide we usually begin with screening primary aged children. Once we have enough referral cases, part of the team will return to begin treatments. The remainder continue screenings, offering them to other members of the community if there is time. Both groups will then come together to complete treatments.

You can expect to be busy. In one day on the Zanzibar 2009 project the group screened 186 children and referred 153 of them!

Supervision and clinical experience

The idea of this project is to have elective students carry out as much of the clinical work as possible, and so while Work the World organises all the logistics of each project, responsibility for clinical supervision lies with qualified local dentists. As with all our placements, what your supervisor allows you to do will depend on the level of trust and respect you can earn by demonstrating your abilities and confidence, but the opportunity is there to really get some hands-on experience.

Accommodation and free time

Accommodation is in local guesthouses or at the Work the World house. All transport to the project base is included, as well as all meals. Depending on where you are, meals and facilities can be quite basic but living in a rural community means that there simply isn’t access to some of your normal creature comforts. We regularly monitor accommodation to ensure it is secure, clean and comfortable with running water and electricity.

Work is Monday to Friday so if you are based in India you can continue your regular plans. If you are based in Ghana, Nepal or Zanzibar you can take advantage of your free time and get to know a different area of the country you are based. In Ghana and Zanzibar you are close to some fabulous coastline and traveller hangouts. In Nepal you have the stunning Himalayas to contend with.

Ghana » India » Nepal » Zanzibar »