Tag Archives: dental health

TLDP Team 2 June 2024

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Visiting Maubara, Don Bosco and Maubisse from June 2nd to June 16.

Team Leader: Dr Mary Tiutiunnik

Australian Team Members: Kayleen Alexopoulos – Dental Assistant (Week 1)

                                            Dr Geordie Meekin – Dentist (Week 2)

                                            Dr Shane Fernando – Dentist (Week 2)

Timorese Team Members: Ana de Jesus Barreto Tilman (AT) Dental Nurse

                                           Ana Paula dos Santos Tavares Salgado (AP)

                                           Ana Jose Martins (AM) Dental Nurse

                                           Zaino Tison Martins (Tison) Dental Nurse

Timorese Dental Nurses (Solar Smiles): Deonisio Anyonio Mendonca 

                                                                Lucas Mendonca Rodrigues

Timorese  Helpers: Diamantin0 Correia Morais (Tino) (Don Bosco)

Locations of Operation: Loes Vatuboro (Maubara Subdistrict) Yrs 1-6

                           Don Bosco Technical College Dili 

                           Fatubessi School (Maubisse Subdistrict)

                           Carmelite Sisters’ Clinic Maubisse

After some weeks of preparation, organising people, supplies and other logistics necessary for a successful trip, Mary and Kayleen arrived on the late flight from Darwin, delayed due to bags needing to be offloaded in Darwin due to weight restrictions. One of which was Mary’s, full of gloves and stock. The ever reliable Mario, on hand with the Troopie to pick up the Team, assured them that he would gather the bag tomorrow. Quickly shopping for consumables, we headed to Maubara to find a number of boxes from Rotary in Adelaide containing a dental potpourri of stock and equipment, including the much needed gloves.

We try and educate our Timorese colleagues about many aspects of dentistry and after dinner, Kayleen impressed upon AT and AM the importance of stock control and packing in an orderly manner so that things can be easily seen, collated and repacked for our road trips. Importantly, AP and Tino had recently sourced sharps boxes from the Maubara Health Clinic who will also dispose of them for us…..saving the less professional repurposing of water bottles.

This year we have implemented a more thorough oral health program with the nearby schools that seems to be going quite well. AT, AP, and AM have screened, treated, and given oral health education to the children at the three preschools in Maubara and are working their way through the 595 students at the primary school a few doors down the road.

We started the weeks outreach work in Loes, a community about 20 minutes down the road from Maubara. As most of the Maubara district schools are only open until 12, we left early for Loes with Tison, a dental nurse from Maubara who is presently volunteering at Liquicia Hospital and enjoying learning with our Team. After the Oecusse trip in May, Tison, a helpful and amiable young man, became very able at setting up our equipment. He speaks the local Maubara dialect which was great for oral hygiene instruction and patient communication. The mornings were filled with primary school students and then after school we saw the community, many who seemed to be related to Tison. 

These Loes patients all had large multi rooted teeth, perhaps the biggest we have seen in Timor, however AT was very competent at removing them, albeit needing to swap hands to relieve the strain. Mary was able to tutor Tison about doing simple fillings and the use of silver fluoride in arresting large carious cavities.

We extended our stay in Loes, it was important to not leave any school children still suffering infections. Nothing is written in stone with our trips and it is important to remain flexible with our scheduling to accomodate first hand information.

Finally, it was time to leave Maubara and head toward Dili and then on to Maubisse for the second half of our trip. This needed some careful planning as the cars would not return to Maubara before handing them over to the next Team, necessitating carrying extra stock. Kayleen’s instructions about recording and packing proved very useful in organising the cars.

Don Bosco Clinic

After the 1 hour trip back to Dili, we set up our clinic in the Don Bosco vocational training centre on the edge of Dili. Usually we try and look after regional communities but as many of the young people at the centre came from the country, with limited funds for dental treatment we felt that we should help look after them. 

Saying goodbye to Kayleen, we picked up our two new team members, Geordie and Shane who are working in rural Queensland. Joined by Tino and the many helpers at Don Bosco, the mobile clinic was quickly established and we were able to see many young people over the weekend. The brothers and priests were extremely grateful for our service, and we are hopeful we can come back in November to complete our tasks here.

The Sisters car suffered two broken windows overnight, a rare negative to our trips and Mary and the Don Bosco driver needed to tour the car repair workshops of Dili to find something that looked like the originals.

Sister Joaninha de Araujo, Sister Joaninha dos Reis, Dr Mary Tuituinnik and Sister Odette

Being in Dili afforded an opportunity to meet with the Carmelite Sisters who are integral to us efficiently doing our work. Unfortunately, the news wasn’t good as the felt they did not have the time to attend to our accreditation and customs clearance. As the Sisters are licensed to run health clinics, we can use their credentials to bring essentials such as anaesthetic into Timor Leste. We left for Maubisse wondering about the future and how we might need to restructure our arrangements.

Maubisse is up in the hills and quite cold, especially for Tison who lives on the hot coast and appeared quite stunned with the change in climate. Our arrival coincided with a visit from the Cardinal and we enjoyed seeing the colourful celebrations with many dancing Timorese in native costumes. Our accomodation was within earshot of the church, loud music continuing until luckily there was a power outage which sent the noisy throng home.

Maubisse

School starts a little later because of the cold and so there was less need for an early start, just as well as the road was rough with the last 300 meters more suited to a mountain goat. Shaun, a keen 4 wheel driver enjoyed the challenge but baulked at the last decent thinking that losing the Troopy over the edge wouldn’t look good on his resume. Luckily a bevy of locals appeared and kindly carried our equipment down the hill to the small school.

Portage of our equipment down the hill

Lucas and Deon, the two Solar Smiles dental nurses met us up with us and joined the Team for the week. Solar Smiles is another Rotary backed group that concentrates on oral health in schools in the Maubisse region.  After a short ceremony from the teachers where we were presented with the local woven tais we set to work. As often is the case the power supply at the school was not quite enough requiring more helpers to climb the hill and fetch our generators.

We found that the children and community had quite poor oral health however their teeth were quite small and easy to remove, unlike those of the folk in Loes down by the coast.

The next day it was a late finish to our clinic as the local men who were to carry our gear up the hill wished to have their teeth cleaned before they would start.

We then worked for two days at the Carmelite Sisters clinic in Maubisse, unfortunately they did not have their government contract renewed and the once busy clinic was very quiet. The slower change of pace allowed for some quality mentoring, particularly in filling techniques of the Solar Smiles boys and Tison, Geordie and Shane were of a similar age to their new Timorese friends and enjoyed the chance to share their knowledge which was received with great interest.

The Solar Smiles boys had a treasure trove of materials and we were able to “borrow” tubes of hand sanitiser which was in short supply and donate other materials to Tino who never has enough in hid government run clinic.

Back down to Dili where Mary was knee deep in the documentation rigmarole for the next team. Nothing seems straightforward in Timor Leste, working out who to approach at the MoH for our accreditations and designating someone to get that job done.

Helping the children, relieving pain and infection sometimes seem the easy tasks to do.

More running around to get the essentials for the next Team, a trip to the airport to pick up newly arrived Henry, introductions, debrief and lunch, back to the airport for the Australian contingent and all of a sudden our trip was over.

For an impromptu trip, Team 2 was very busy , importantly helping the locals in need and also introducing new team members to our work in Timor Leste.

Second week Team 2 Team members

THANKYOU AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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It seems that the years fly by faster and faster as we get older. Here we are again at the end of the year, with the silly season looming. At this time, I reflect upon everything that has happened during the year – good and bad – all our achievements, all our losses, and how we have handled it all.

This year has been tumultuous for the Timor Leste Dental Program; we hired a new dental therapist, Nico Pires, at the beginning of the year, in a bid to increase the local ownership for the program. He has proved to be a true asset – a hardworking and competent clinician, who is unafraid to take charge even in the presence of some extremely authoritative (bossy) Aussie dentists. We simultaneously entered into a partnership with the Maubisse-Bendigo Friendship Association, which has increased the support for the Maubisse District, but has also had the effect of increasing (temporarily, we hope!) our workload, as we bring these newcomers up to speed. Maubisse Hospital acquired a new dentist – Dr Inda Zulmira Días –  who has already shown her skill in organising the Maubisse sectors for Teams 1 and 5, as well as an ability to connect with the community though our dental workshops. Everyone who got to work with her this year fell in love with her charm and enthusiasm.

Overshadowing everything was a great deal of frustration dealing with the moving goal posts of the new Timorese dental registration process – delays, lengthy meetings with government officials, multiple trips to Dili, mountains of paperwork, and emails, and submission and resubmission of documents…this is still ongoing. All the teams felt the absence of our translator, and friend, Bony, who was in his final year at university. Although he couldn’t work with the teams, he still set aside time to help the TLDP with the registration, as well as sorting out many other details for our teams. Thank you Bony!

The TLDP sent over 5 teams this year. We had a host of new volunteers – Dr Mary Tuituinnik, Dr Marius Mocke, Mrs Yvette Young, Ms Abbey Notley, Ms Liz Thompson, Dr Mengzhu Wang, Ms Malita McCabe, Dr Andrew Frame, Dr Phil Hill and Dr Christine Underhill. It was wonderful to see the way these new volunteers took the Timorese people into their hearts. We also saw the return of our regulars – Dr John Moran, Dr David Digges, Dr Wayne Pearson, Dr Karen Sloan, Dr Geoff Knight, Dr David Sheen, Dr Blanche Tsetong, Ms Bella Miller, Dr John Whyte, Dr Ashley Freeman and Dr Peter Shakes. The people who return, year after year, is what keeps this program running. They are gold.

Sadly, two of our team leaders, Wayne Pearson and David Sheen, claimed that this was their so-called ‘last’ trip to Timor; however, it is hard to resist Timor’s siren song – we think that Timor hasn’t seen the back of them yet! However, by far the biggest blow to the program this year, was the loss of Sr Filomena da Costa – our Timorese Program Coordinator. The Carmelite exec ruled that she had to move to Oecusse to head the community over there; as a relatively young community, they need someone with her 26 years of experience. In one fall swoop we have lost our boss, the best chef in Timor, our spiritual advisor, local folklorist and a quirky, mischievous friend. No prizes for guessing that everyone will be vying for the Oecusse spot from now on! Nico and Sr Joaninha have big shoes to fill.

This year the TLDP treated over 2330 people; we extracted over 1851 teeth, placed over 937 fillings, and carried out 411 preventive treatments. This treatment is worth about $977,650. We facilitated one dental workshop and mentored 6 Timorese dental clinicians over a period of 10 weeks.

We would like to wholeheartedly thank all our fabulous volunteers, who never stint on giving their time and effort to the Timorese people. We would also like to thank their families and friends who support them – they would not be able to do what they do without you. Thank you to all our Timorese workers, partners and helpers. There are always a multitude of local people, often unsung and unseen, who help keep the program running while we are over there – they are teachers, drivers, groundsmen, elders, nurses, passersby – they give because they can, and we are awed by them.  A massive thank you to Henry Schein Halas and SDI for their extremely generous donations to our program this year – we would not be able to function without your donations of vital dental materials and equipment. Last, but not least, thank you to our donors – 97% of your valuable contributions go directly towards helping the Timorese people. We are more than grateful for your support. Your contributions pay for equipment and vehicle maintenance, for material and equipment purchases and for the salaries of Nico and other Timorese translators and fixers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

From all of us at the Timor Leste Dental Program, we wish all our volunteers, our supporters, our donors, our partners and their families, a happy Christmas. We wish you all the best for the new year. Keep safe and well and we will see you in 2018.

The Sublime Grace of Good Friends

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Team 1 has returned from a fortnight of fun, food and friendship with our Timorese friends in Maubara and Maubisse. On this trip, our 3-person contingent from Australia (Dr Mary Tuituinnik, Dr Blanche Tsetong and Mrs Yvette Young), was happily far-outnumbered by the Timorese part of the team. (Pic above: Gentle Tino; below: The beautiful Sisters in Maubisse: Sr Eva, Sr Rosa, Sr Inacia, Sr Loudres, Sr Helena – with Yvette, Blanche and Mary)

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Amongst our team members in Maubisse, were Dr Inda Zulmira Dias, the new dentist in Maubisse Hospital, as well as Armando da Costa Martins and Ricardo Mendonça, the Maubisse Hospital dental therapists. In addition to our usual tasks, the TLDP is currently assisting the Bendigo-Maubisse Friendship Group, who has been asked by the Maubisse Hospital Director to help improve dental services in Maubisse District. Hence, this trip we worked with the Maubisse dental team to develop a plan about how this could be achieved.  Dr Inda is a young and enthusiastic dentist, educated in the Phillipines and full of great ideas and a passion for promoting good oral health. (Pic: Clinical supervision in Maubisse Hospital)

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In Maubisse, we were also joined for a day by the bubbly, Ana Tilman, a dental therapist who works with the Kose Nehan group out of Aileu. She was super-fun and a joy to work with. Team 1 also had the task of ‘road testing’ a Timorese dental therapist, Nicolau Tolentino Faria Pires (aka Nico), that we hoped to employ for the TLDP. Nico has a couple of years’ experience, has worked for a couple of other NGOs previously, and has been recommended to us by our mate, Dili dentist, Dr Fernando. Our last team member in Maubisse was our driver, Dionisius Gonsalves (Dion). (Pic: Ana and Nico)

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We were so fortunate to have the opportunity to mentor so many clinicians at the same time!  We had three days of treatment and clinical supervision in Maubisse, peppered with lots of treats – joyful, delicious and noisy dinners with the Sisters, a soujourn at the Maubisse branch of AHHA helping young Timorese learn English, listening to the haunting notes of the Sisters’ singing early in the mornings, Mary and Dion’s afternoon jaunt with Sr Lourdes to deliver meals (on wheels) – and an oral health workshop for the community thrown in at the end! (Pic above: Dr Inda presenting at the Oral Health workshop; below: Ricardo welcomes the community at our workshop)

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For their last 2 days in the mountains, Dr Inda organised an outreach clinic in Hatubulico, a beautiful, extremely peaceful village at the foot of Mt Ramelau, Timor’s highest mountain. Like Mt Fuji, Mt Ramelau has a very particular shape and is instantly recognisable – over the years we have been lucky to view it from all sides. Hatubulico is a 2 hour, super rocky drive from Maubisse, with plenty of spectacular scenery, narrow roads and sharp drop offs to occupy passengers and drivers alike. (Pic: Mt Ramelau from Hatubulico)

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As is the case in many remote communities, the dental need is massive and we had a very busy couple of days – four clinicians working, two in ‘normal’ chairs (oh, our backs!!), one dentist supervising the therapists, Yvette assisting everyone, checking the post operative conditions of the patients and sterilising instruments, and Dion doing admin and a very relaxed kind of crowd control. (Pic: Our alfresco clinic – 2 chairs manned by Nico and Ricardo)

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We always love alfresco clinics! The team had fun in Hatubulico. We stayed in a pretty swish place (despite the need to share beds and a dearth of blankets, it had running hot water showers that mostly worked!), enjoyed the views and friendly locals whilst walking to work, and even attempted the gnarly track to the start of the Ramelau ascent path (we had to abort halfway because Sister’s car threw a hissy fit. (Pic: Inda and Blanche – impromptu checkups for the crowd)

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Week 2 saw the team descending from the cool mountain air into the miasma of the coast. The heat and humidity affected us all, but struck down Yvette one day and Mary the next. The sea, usually a welcome relief, was lukewarm and full of debris and sea-lice. Still, we soldiered on and the second week proved just as exciting as the first. Tino joined the team on the Tuesday and Bony rocked up on Wednesday night. It was lovely to see them both! During the week, the team worked in Maubara Clinic for 2 days, giving the two therapists (Tino and Nico) the benefit of working under Mary’s exacting eye, and Blanche, the opportunity to effect some repairs. (Pic: Yvette, Nico, Blanche, Dion and Mary)

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The team also spent a day in Lebotelo treating the primary school and the community and a day in Loes SMP School – both journeys took longer than before. Road degradation continues on apace in Timor! Lebotelo is now a 90 min journey via goat track, not a 30 min soireé up the hill from Maubara, and the road to Loes is literally falling into the sea!

The team fell into a natural rhythm: Sr Filomena and Tino screened the kids, Bony did admin duties and tag-teamed with Tino to give toothbrush instruction, and Nico (tag-teaming with Tino), Blanche, Mary and Yvette got the treatment done – a well-oiled machine!

20170504_100551 (2)The only thing that went slightly awry was in Loes when Yvette – driving Sister’s car – temporarily forgot the existence of those rather large drains. Nobody was hurt and there no damage to the car, but Yvette provided a whole bunch of entertainment for the locals at the cost of a slightly bruised street cred.

Although Bony and Tino are old mates, they soon took Nico under their wing and all three were soon carrying on like long lost brothers. Nico was a super hard worker and a careful clinician. We are sure that he will make a good addition to our program. From now on, he will be permanently employed by the program to work both in the clinic and the surrounding Loes/Maubara subdistricts, as well as to work with the teams when they are in Timor. For now, we have enrolled him in English classes in Dili. Hopefully, he will have picked up a word or two by the time John’s team rolls into town in 9 days! All he needs is “No worries!”

IMG_8658 (2)Many thanks to all our team members, and to their families, who support them, to our lovely Sr Filomena, Sr Joaninha, and to the Maubisse Sisters. Thankyou to Mario and Judite in the Rotary Liaison office in Dili – your help is essential to our work, and thank you to Henry Schein Halas, who continues to support our program. (Pic left: Novagenerian who fought with the Australians in WW2; right: Full of grace, Sr Filomena and everybody’s favorite dish, Brinzela).

A final note: In my excitement, I forgot the all important stats! Team 1 saw 540 patients, did 378 examinations, filled 94 teeth, extracted 234 teeth,  and carried out 21 preventive treatments.20170505_145409 (2)

They’re back!

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Team 1 arrived home 1 week ago. Since then the TLDP has been busily prepping for the upcoming trip of Team 2, which leaves in 2 weeks. Hold onto your seats; Team 1’s report is coming forthwith!!!

Last team to TL

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Hot on the heels of Cowboy and Snake, TLDP’s last team for 2015 leaves Sydney today. After overnighting in Darwin, they will hit TL’s shores on Saturday. The team is a conglomerate of first time volunteers and seasoned TLDP-ers. Carolyn and David Digges will be joined by yet another member of the intrepid Digges family, David’s sister, Elizabeth, as well as newcomer dentist, Charmaine White. Geoff Knight will also be adding his considerable experience to this team in the second week when this team heads out to Bobonaro. Have fun team!

Cowboy and Snake Ride Again

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andy and gordon in prisonTeam 4 returned home last Saturday following an intensely busy 10 days in and around Railaco. It has been a while since Drs Andy Moran (Snake) and Gordon Saggers (Cowboy) have been to TL, so they really noticed the improvements in infrastructure, particularly in the quality of the main roads and the availability of electricity; as well as improvements in public health, especially the reduction in betel-nut usage which has been attributed to a public health campaign.

Andy and Gordon were charged with taking over the pressure cooker steriliser that the TLDP has just purchased from India. The fabulous Rotary Coordinator, Daryl Mills, provided us with a spare gas bottle and the boys bought a gas cooker from a supermarket in Dili and now the new clinic in Railaco has a steriliser that can sterilise a load of dirty instruments in 15 minutes!

The pair had a smallish set of dramas unique to working in this beautiful place – on finding that they had the wrong set of handpieces for the dental cart, they had to endure the 4 hour return trip from Railaco to Maubara to make an exchange. They wrestled with a recalcitrant generator, stemmed the flood from a leaky scaler and negotiated the goat tracks, otherwise known as secondary and tertiary roads with audaciousness and resolve. The roads to Tarasu and Leorema are particularly BAD.

andy, gordon and pt

Team 4 was kept extremely busy by the redoubtable Father Bong, treating patients in Railaco, Nasuta, Leorema, Railaco Leten, Gleno Jail, Daicerlaco, Tocoluli, Cocoa and Tarasu. Super-organised Father Bong had patients lined up and ready to go so the boys had very little downtime. He also organised two excellent support staff; a driver and interpreter, Victor, a Timorese who been a soldier in the Portugese army and had worked in Sydney as a cleaner in St Vincent’s Hospital and as a garbage truck driver in Liverpool; and Natalia, an ex-nun who was their nurse and interpreter.

In total, the team saw 335 patients; did 20 cleans, filled 353 teeth and extracted 425 teeth. As Andy puts it, “Not bad for a couple of old blokes”.

Many thanks to Henry Schein Halas who again stepped up to the plate and donated some much needed local anaesthetic to us, to Father Bong and Daryl, whose hospitality and efficiency we could not do without, and to Cowboy and Snake, for their sheer hard work. Fantastic job!

The lucky team returns!

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Our last team for 2014 returned from Timor Leste a couple of weeks ago, tired but triumphant. The team was exceedingly busy both weeks. In the first week our intrepid team, comprising Dr Hans Raets (Team leader), Dr Yvonne Huijser Von Reenen and Ms Breanna Martin, made the first dental visit to the village of Lebuletta, a 90 min 4WD into the hills above Maubara. We are not sure they will be invited back – by hooking up to the village’s brand new electricity supply, they blew all the fuses!

Hans, Yvonne, Sr FilomenaThat same week, the team also visited the nearby villages of Paurobo and Kaikasa where they were dismayed by the high levels of decay. They were also plagued by equipment failures – herniated air lines, seizing of high speed and slow speed handpieces and malfunctioning valves on the steriliser. Luckily the team had Breanna – a secret expert in battling recalcitrant equipment. She singlehandedly fixed both the air line and the valves.

hans team 2014In the second week, the team was joined by Dr Geoff Knight and his daughter, Anneli Knight, as well as Aida, the Timorese Dental Therapist that the program mentors, who works in Liquiça and Maubara.

The team took off to Bobonaro, a 5 hour rough journey with spectacular scenery. They made a stop in the infamous town of Balibo, where Rotary is building a guesthouse and clinic (apparently the rooms and food are 1st class! We have already volunteered to test them out). A lucky team, they were fortunate to be just in time to see the Tour de Timor cyclists cross the Stage 2 finish line!

In Bobonaro the team was swamped by work, which was dealt with most effectively by using a special treatment protocol which Geoff has helped develop. With Geoff’s tutelage, Aida, in particular, has become extremely proficient in treating decay quickly  with basic equipment. A return visit next year is on the cards to assess the 344 teeth treated in this way.

Catastrophe struck on the ‘lucky’ team’s second last day. The compressor kicked the bucket at the worst time – when they were treating Sr Fatinha, our Timorese coordinator in Bobonaro. A 5 min job became a 2 hour job. Well done Geoff!

hotspringDespite equipment failures and  the bells and the dogs of Bobonaro, the team managed to maintain their remarkable spirit and goodwill throughout the trip. Could it be because of Anneli’s sterilisation efficiency  keeping them amply supplied with cold steel? Or was it super-dental assistant Breanna, with her continual rendition of AFL songs? Perhaps it was the pilgrimage with Sr Mendes  to the hotsprings at nearby Marobo? No matter what the reason, they were a great team!

Another successful trip despite many trials. The team treated a total of 578 patients. They extracted 321 teeth, filled 226 teeth and performed 438 preventive operations. Well done Hans, Yvonne, Breanna, Geoff, Anneli, Aida,  Sr Filomena and Sr Fatinha!

Team 2 report summary

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Team 2’s visit in June was littered with challenges. An erupting volcano threw travel plans into disarray, a missed turn in the road meant an unplanned trip into Railaco, and  broken compressors and dodgy repairs limited both the work done in the first week as well as the team’s movements. Unfazed, the team – John, Tony and bilingual Sam, with our Timorese partners, Sr Filomena and Aida, the Timorese dental therapist – were able to visit the school in Dair and Liquiça Hospital, as well working in the Maubara Clinic. In total they carried out 829 treatments! Well done team!

Tony Hunt and child in Dair

Not enough dentists in Timor Leste

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Typical dental condition in Timor
This swelling arose from a baby tooth that didn’t fall out by itself. Fueled by TB infection, it grew until it covered this 12 year old boy’s teeth so he could no longer eat. It took him 4 days to travel to a doctor

Timor Leste (East Timor) has a population of 1.1 million people. Of the less than 10 dentists in the country, almost all practice privately in Dili, the capital. There are a few free dental clinics – also located in Dili.  In comparison, the vast majority of East Timorese live rurally, reliant on subsistence farming. Hence, for the majority of East Timorese, dental treatment is something that is both financially and logistically unattainable. The Timorese government has tried to address this need by employing Indonesian-trained East Timorese dental ‘nurses’ in some rural hospitals. Unfortunately, these individuals are poorly trained, have minimal experience and are expected to attend their communities’ dental needs with almost no equipment.

The Timor Leste Dental Program is based in Maubara, a town 60km west of Dili, a trip of about 1 1/2 hours. Each year, several teams of volunteer Australian dentists, dental assistants and other dental professionals give two weeks to help our nearest neighbours. The purpose of the program is two-fold: Firstly,  to support the rurally-emplaced Timorese dental nurses with equipment, training and mentoring so that they can better serve their communities. Secondly, to provide much-needed dental care to the people living in rural areas of western Timor L’este.

Timorese communities suffer from high rates of dental decay and much of our treatment involves extraction of teeth that have caused pain for years. Many people have never seen a dentist before. The chewing of betel nut is common and so there are also many extractions due to gum disease. There is also a high incidence of oral cancer and tuberculosis-influenced oral infection. We see many things over there that simply do not exist here in Australia.