Target reached!
Thank you so so much for helping us reach our target! We really appreciate everyone'...
Dental students tackle oral health issues in Peru
Plymouth
Aim
Travelling to Peru to help the most socially deprived people. We will make a difference by using our skills in a low resource setting.
“We are 3 Dental Students travelling to Peru to help the most socially deprived people out there. We will make a difference to their lives, use our skills in a low resource setting, and pick up techniques that we can bring home to use on our own patients. ”
Hello!
We are Amreeta, Sapna and Sarah, fourth-year dental students from Plymouth University Peninsula School of Dentistry (PDS). We are one of the first group visiting Arequipa in Peru with Work the World and as part of the preparations for our trip, we are working hard to learn Spanish.
Hi... I'm Amreeta!
My picture below is me attempting to learn how to cycle, which on those heavy bikes is hard!)
I chose to study dentistry because it combines all of the interests i have (academia, creativity, community interaction and team-working to name a few!)
Going to Peru will bring all of those aspects together to make an invaluable difference to people's lives, which i have always wanted to be a part of.
Thank you for helping me make this impact upon people's lives!
Hi... I'm Sarah!
Why I chose dentistry? Dentistry was hugely appealing to me as it offered the possibility to have a very positive effect on people's life. Enabling someone to have the confidence to show off their smiles and spread the message of good oral health is something which is hugely rewarding.
I hope that my elective will allow me to 'think outside the box' and experience dentistry like never before in a completely different social and cultural environment where the facilities will be basic and circumstances of the population completely unique to what I’m used to in the UK.
Thank you so much for your support!
Hi... I'm Sapna!
Dentistry is a somewhat stressful experience for many people. I chose this career as I really enjoy the patient interaction and making a difference to people's lives.
Not to mention this is the only profession that would allow me to put my obssesive cleaning and perfectionism to good use!
Having never been to Peru, I am looking forward to interacting with patients in Spanish and in a completely different healthcare setting to the UK.
Thank you for your support!
Why Peru? What we will be doing out there?
Peru suffers from a lack of portable purified water, which means that many local people rely on sugary drinks for their liquid intake. As a consequence, incidences of dental disease are high and visits to the dentist are rare, and even then only when pain becomes unbearable.
While Peru has private dentists, treatments are expensive and public dentistry is limited – resulting in long waiting times for those unable to afford private dental fees. According to the World Health Organization there are 1.2 dentists for every 10,000 people in Peru – this compares with 5.2 per 10,000 in the UK.
We will be working in two hospitals; one is the oldest hospital in Peru and the other, one of the largest. We will be carrying out extractions, scalings, fillings along with maxillofacial surgical cases, since there is a high incidence of oral and head and neck cancer in this region. We will also be offering preventative measures and health promotion to ensure long term oral health needs are met. In this way we will be making a real difference.
Why we need your help
We are full-time dentistry students, who have all succesfully passed exams and acquired the necessary skills to become a dentist.
At PDS we do not have the opportunity to participate in an ‘Elective Project’ within the curriculum and so we have to arrange an attachment out of the UK during our vacation period. This total journey will cost us £3010 each and your contributions will be of invaluable help towards our target.
Where your pledges will go
The estimated cost of the elective is £3010 each, none of which is funded. Any money contributed will help towards our essentials, such as flights, insurance, vaccinations and accommodation.
In return, we are able to provide some rewards for your pledges of support (see below). We will update you on our progress and you will also be able to follow us on various social media platforms including twitter, facebook and youtube!
Any contributions would be gratefully received, however big or small. We appreciate any support you can give us. We hope this sounds like something you would like to support, as we would love to have you on board!
Rewards
For £50 we can offer a selection of handmade artwork by one of us, these include: landscape paintings, sketched portraits (example below) and abstract animal art as shown below.
There are:
- Seascape/Landscape paintings
- 2 portraits available
- 2 animal art drawings
- Postcard from Peru
- Exclusive Gift from Peru
- An A1500 Colgate ProClinical Electric Toothbrush and 4 full-sized Colgate Toothpastes
- UK Loupes Oval Sports Cases
- Limited edition UK Loupes sunglasses
- 2 BDA Dental books from the clinical guide series
- 1 pair of Virgin Active earphones
- Day pass to Virgin Active Devonshire Health & Racquets Club
- Dental Protection T-shirts, Pens and Bags (plus a toothbrush from TePe)
- 2 tickets to comedy night at B-Bar (Plymouth)
- Earl's Garden Treatment Voucher (Mount Edgcumbe)
- A presentation of our experiences on our return with your company logo
Many thanks for taking the time to read our project and choosing to pledge your support.
Amreeta, Sapna, Sarah
This project successfully funded on 23rd July 2015