Dental Outreach in India

This two-week project takes a team of elective students to rural fishing villages on India’s south west coast. Working from a temporary dental clinic in the village, we conduct a screening programme for a community that otherwise has little or no access to dental health care, and follow this up by offering free treatment at a well-equipped surgery. This is our best opportunity to gain hands-on clinical experience in India as much of the treatment work will be carried out by the students.

Project Itinerary

On the first day you will travel out to the village for a full orientation led by Work the World staff. This is followed by a traditional welcome from the villagers and the inauguration of the project by the Panchayat President (a local community leader).

The project work begins with a screening programme in a temporary clinic we will establish in the village. Our focus is on check-ups for primary school children, but we also have a screening day open to anyone from the community complaining of dental problems. Any of those screened who require clinical treatment (and this can be as many as 60%) are referred to our free clinic back in Trivandrum.

After several days’ screening (the exact timetable has to depend on how many patients need referring each day), the team returns to the City Dental Clinic in Trivandrum to begin the clinical treatments of those who have been referred.

Supervision & Clinical Experience

While Work the World organises all the logistics of the project, responsibility for clinical supervision lies with Dr Thampi Prabhakaran, the highly respected Chief Dentist at Trivandrum’s City Dental Clinic. We have a qualified dentist with us in the village to assist with difficult or unusual cases during the screening process, and Dr Thampi’s entire team is on hand to oversee all clinical work.

The idea of this project is to have elective students carry out as much of the clinical work as possible, under expert supervision. The opportunities for gaining hands-on experience are therefore substantially greater than with an elective attachment to a regular dental clinic in India. However, 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.

Accommodation & Food

Accommodation for the duration of the project is provided in one of our own Work the World houses in Trivandrum (we provide daily transport to and from the village). Rooms are typically shared with one or two other students, and the large communal living areas make for a fantastic social atmosphere and somewhere to wind down after the day’s work.

Most of your meals are provided by our full-time cook at the house, and are a mixture of typical south Indian and more international dishes (we always offer a vegetarian option). During screening days, we will arrange lunch for the team at a local eatery in the village.

Dates

We have three Dental Outreach projects running in India this summer. The dates are as follows:

31st May – 13th June
5th – 18th July (full)
26th July – 8th August

Please note that places for this project are limited and fill up early.

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