Cambodian Dental brings much needed dental care to 1500 children.

Grahame Gardner Ltd were delighted to recently support to a commendable project which brought dental care to orphans in Cambodia.

The dental team from the University of Manchester have now returned to their studies after the three week trip during which they treated 1,500 children across 5 orphanages, utilising rudimentary facilities and a mobile dental laboratory.

Jennifer Archer, a final year student in Dentistry at the University of Manchester initially approached Grahame Gardner to ask for support, she comments on the project;

“Our Cambodian adventure was an eye opener for all involved, from the second day after arrival we got stuck into extractions, fillings, scaling and oral hygiene advice. It was obvious from the start that this was going to be a big challenge! Many of the children had never received dental care and there were a few tears on occasions but generally the children were amazing, despite the basic conditions they were patient, brave and full of spirit!! We experienced all levels of decay during our 3 week mission. The average 5 year old child in Cambodia has 8-10 decayed teeth and some had been experiencing extreme infections and pain. Despite our training to help younger children, sometimes all it took was a blown up glove or a game of football to put a smile on their faces.

We were also able to impart oral hygiene advice and give out donated toothbrushes and fluoride toothpaste to all the children during the evening.

Not only was the elective project an amazing dental experience but also a fantastic insight into Cambodian culture, we were successfully integrated into the local culture, cuisine and traditions, an experience that we will never forget. We were the first UK students to join the Cambodian Enfants d'Asie (ASPECA) dental mission and we hope that we have now established a successful link that will continue to provide dental care to the children of Cambodia for years to come.”

Grahame Gardner Ltd provided cool scrub suits from their range for the team. In addition they also provided a number of patterned scrub suits for the team to take over with them to give to the permanent team operating in Cambodia.

The team from Manchester University carried out this work with a group of volunteers for Enfants d'asie, which support more than 8,000 children in 50 centres located in South East Asia, including Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines.