Australian charity organisation Bridge2Aid Australia is making strides in helping African countries combat dental disease through training programmes.

Bridge2Aid trains health workers to carry out emergency care in rural areas with very few resources available.

Bridge2Aid Australia honorary chairperson Nick McGlew stated that communities suffered in pain with treatable conditions owing to a lack of primary healthcare, which was preventable.

“Bridge2Aid Australia is building up capacity to free more communities from chronic pain by teaching extraction, cross infection control and oral health education to existing rural health workers, stopping months and years of agony for many, and minimising the incidence of life-threatening infections,” he said.

The first training programme in Africa has for instance helped to relieve a 28 year old who had been battling with a bad toothache for two years.

A local practitioner had attempted to take out his tooth with a screwdriver which resulted in severe blood loss and, he recalls, a loss of consciousness for 30 minutes.

Bridge2Aid released a statement saying that in Australia a dentist’s priority would usually be to save teeth; however, in developing countries extracting the tooth is usually the only practical option, as leaving it in place would only cause further suffering and complications. 

If your practice would like to suppot Bridge2Aid or you are interested in volunteering please visit http://www.bridge2aid.com.au/