Tarbert Dental staff boost charity effort in Malawi
BACK from Africa and in the familiar surroundings of Tarbert Dental practice, principal dentist Linda Garwood and dental nurse Francesca Grant reflected on their recent experience of providing dental care in rural Malawi.
They travelled to Malawi with the Argyll-based charity, Smileawi.
‘Smileawi is a small charitable trust founded by Dunoon dentists Nigel and Vicky Milne,’ said Linda.
‘Two teams provided dental treatment over four weeks. Six dentists and four dental nurses visited 10 locations.’
Mobile dental chairs, equipment and supplies were precariously strapped to roof racks of 4x4 vehicles and driven along rough, dusty roads and trails to visit small mission clinics and remote villages. Once on site, it was ‘all hands on deck’ to set up portable chairs and organise the basic dental kit.
‘Any chair or table that could be found in the makeshift clinics was pressed into service,’ added Fran.
‘Sterilisation of instruments was carried out in domestic pressure cookers over camping-gas burners, often on the floor in front of an audience of curious children.’
In most locations there was no running water or electricity, and battery-powered head torches were used by the dentists. Teams typically worked nonstop from early morning till late afternoon.
Linda, who has run a dental practice in Tarbert for more than 20 years, continued: ‘The villagers had been forewarned of the Smileawi team’s arrival. Most people walked long distances, patiently sitting on the ground in the open air queuing for free treatment.’
With the help of a few local healthcare administrators to aid in translation – and with the liberal use of hand signals – the patients indicated which teeth were giving most discomfort.
Many patients – both adults and children – had been living with tooth decay and infections for many weeks and months. There is very little provision of dental care even in the bigger towns of Malawi, as almost all the health care resources go into perinatal care, malaria, HIV and TB. Most villagers seen by the Smileawi team did not have either the money or means to access the Malawian dental therapists, who are scarce and often have no proper dental kit to work with.
‘Most rural Malawians have no access to a simple toothbrush or toothpaste throughout their lives. So the need for dental care is almost insurmountable,’ explained Fran.
Despite the challenges of travel, heat, dust and rudimentary clinics, the Smileawi teams were able to treat 1,700 patients. They also distributed toothbrushes and toothpaste to schools and gave out knitted goods and baby clothes, kindly donated by Scottish patients and friends of the Smileawi team.
Despite the challenges, team camaraderie and the warm welcome and gratitude of the Malawian people made this an experience to treasure for Linda and Francesca.
Smileawi fundraises all year round to enable these autumn visits to Malawi, and Nigel and Vicky Milne are returning next May to explore further ways to help the Malawian dental therapists and the people of rural Malawi. All clinical team members selffund their travel and accommodation costs while in Malawi, and all funds raised by the charity are used to buy the equipment.
Linda and Francesca thanked patients and friends of Tarbert Dental who raised £3,500 for the cause.
Linda said: ‘Tarbert Dental looks forward to a continued relationship with Smileawi and we hope to send more team members and encourage other volunteers to continue this worthwhile project.’