Page 79 - RADC 2017

CHARITY
To Greece with Dentaid
Maj Malcolm Hamilton RADC 1988-1995.
I had been thinking about volunteering
for a while but work life balance meant it wasn’t really an option as we are foster carers at home, however, we knew we could schedule a period of free time in February this year. I chose Greece for
a number of reasons, I’d read a Blog of another dentist who had been and thought it would be a worthwhile place to go. My last stint of working with refugees had been many years ago, in Nepal, so I am aware of how desperate their situation
can be. The likes of the Red Cross and Medicine Sans Frontiers take care of immediate medical issues but there is
very often little in the way of dental care available.
As a family we’ve done various fundraising over the years, for a number of charities, and I had done some work many years ago but this was pretty much a new experience going with Dentaid and Health Point Foundation (HPF). The situation in Northern Greece is that HPF run the clinics purely with volunteers. They have some clinic coordinators who stay for
up to 3 months at a time whilst the dental
staff and translators are more short term, anything from 3 days to a couple of weeks. Some volunteers go directly via HPF, arranging everything themselves, whilst others, such as ourselves, are organised into teams by Dentaid who then arrange the flights, accommodation, car hire etc.
I was there as part of a team of four dentists, one hygienist and one dental nurse, and we were accompanied by two HPF clinic co-coordinators (one to liaise with camp authorities and Red Cross, the other to help set up and keep the equipment
running) and two translators. Our team of 10 comprised 1 Scottish, 3 English, 2 Irish, 2 Saudi Arabian, 1 French and 1 Australian volunteers. We set up either 2 or 3 massage tables to act as chairs depending upon space. We were busy every day, and from the moment we arrived we were surrounded by a gaggle of potential patients. We treated over 30 patients a day as well as providing OHI to the children in the school rooms. We prioritised sending our nurse and hygienist to the children so the dentists doubled up assisting each other.
We provided a variety of treatments, extractions and extirpations being the most common but we also placed fillings and recemented bridges as well scaled some acute perio cases.
The experience was very rewarding, the patients were all very grateful for what we could provide although one or two declined our treatment options as they wanted to wait until they were somewhere permanent to have a more definitive treatment.
The conditions in the camps we visited had improved in recent months, the poor weather having forced some changes,
such as moving everybody from tented accommodation and into containers, although still without electricity, heating or cooking facilities. Food was distributed centrally and, whilst nutritionally balanced, was perhaps not always dentally friendly, high in carbohydrates and sugars. Some of the refugees had been moved out of camps into local hotels, whilst in some ways this gave them better facilities it removed them from many of the NGOs and charities set up to support the refugees. For this reason
dental clinics were also run at hotels,
and whilst we didn’t have a set clinic, we distributed toothbrushes and paste to all the children at our hotel.
I will definitely be going back, and I am already starting to make plans for later this year. Dentaid are continuing to work with HPF in Northern Greece and have started
to visit some of the islands. When I started fund raising towards this trip I was unsure exactly how much I would raise and set a low target on a crowd funding website but to my surprise this was very quickly beaten and eventually folk had donated approximately twice what I had needed so I’ll not need to fund raise for my next trip.
For a more detailed day to day account of the trip please visit: http:// togreecewithdentaid.blogspot.co.uk/
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