James & Sandra are on a dental mission to Malawi

Dental professionals bound for Malawi to deliver essential care and equipment with the help of Colgate and Dentaid.

In Malawi, dental services only benefit those who live in urban/suburban areas which, according to statistics, represent only 15% of the population. The rural masses (85%) suffer silently for lack of dental services in the country. To tackle this nationwide issue, a group of eight passionate dental professionals are travelling to Malawi from the UK and Europe to provide essential dental care and equipment to Malawians for free, in association with Dentaid, a charity which aims to improve the world’s oral health.

The volunteers will be in Malawi during the month of July when they will assist the local people in their efforts to improve oral and dental healthcare provision. James Goolnik and Sandra Martin will take part in National Skills Transfer workshops and tutorials to educate communities on proper and efficient oral care. The dentists will also visit Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre and Zomba Central Hospital where they will donate equipment, instruments and materials to the dentists who work there to ensure that efficient oral care can be sustained long after this initiative. Colgate is proud to sponsor the project, providing 10,000 toothbrushes and toothpastes to help to improve the standards of oral health in this impoverished area.

Dentist Practitioner, Author and Project Leader, James Goolnik commented “Oral health is extremely important as research continues to reveal that our oral health has an impact on the rest of our bodies. It is shocking that an estimated 85% of Malawi’s population do not have access to effective dental services.

We are extremely grateful to Colgate for their generous donation to this worthwhile project. The toothbrushes and toothpastes will provide the community with essential tools for the improvement of oral care in Malawi.”

The team of eight dentists involved in the project include:

• James Goolnik, a past-president of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. His book 'Brush' about having an outstanding career in Dentistry is a bestseller on Amazon with all the profits going to Dentaid. The book paid for the equipment in the clinic in Malawi where we are going in July to deliver a skills transfer workshop. He was voted the most influential person in Dentistry in 2011 and 2012.
• Sandra Martin a Spanish trained dentist working in London. Sandra completed postgraduate training in New York with implants and periodontology.
• Sean Smith, a service engineer from Henry Schein who has installed equipment all over the world.
• Iordache Gallarato, an Italian practicing dentist who did his training in Periodontics and Implant Dentistry at the department of Periodontics New York University NYUCD.
• Sally Simpson a dental therapist working in Derbyshire. Sally is the immediate past president of the British Society Dental Hygiene and Therapy association and an ambassador for the dental charity Heart Your Smile.
• Nicola Shaw, a dental hygienist and co-owner of a practice in Hampshire.
• Brendon Macdonald, a cameraman and social media expert who is the director of ApexHUB, a new media agency and lives in in Liverpool.
• Alison Parlons, trained as a chartered accountant in London and now works for Virgin.

You can follow their progress at www.facebook.com/dentaid.charity

There has been £11,994.42 donated to supply and equip two dental surgeries in Malawi.