Mobile Dental Unit

The following is a report from a recent trip to Kampong Chhnang from 11th to 15th January 2010 by the One-2-One NGO in Cambodia, which provides free dental and medical treatment to poor children and their families. In addition to donating funds to One-2-One for their general work, CamKids is funding the cost of a mobile dental unit to perform regular visits to outlying areas of Cambodia, where the population is too poor, even to travel to the free clinic in Phnom Penh.

During this trip, 351 patients were seen in total, of which 206 were age 18 and under. 201 extractions and 195 fillings took place and 51 scalings were carried out. We had 2-5 dentist for the 5 days and our numbers were boosted towards the afternoon with a dentist coming over from the prison service to help . During this time 1 dentist was unwell for 1 day but recovered after that to continue the excellent work.

The mobile clinic took place in the local community facilities, and community leaders also helped us find the pockets of the most needy children. The team went in high spirits - all keen to help and make a difference. Everyone had a job to do - registration, dental education, treatment, worming, nits treatment, sterilizing of equipment.

Even though, for many, this was the first time they had met a dentist, they were amazingly brave and coped extremely well. We also provided health education for the children - giving tooth brushes and tooth paste and teaching them how to use them.

We also had a great nit busters team, applying shampoo waiting the appropriate time and then off to rinse and dry and a great team out at the back doing the cleaning and sterilizing.

Thank you again to CamKids and all of your donors and supporters for making this possible.


Please also check out the slideshow of the trip below. If you would like to help us fund this fantastic project, please contact: medical@camkids.org or make a single or regular donation from our website and mark the project 'Dental'. Payment can also be made online from the link in the sidebar on the right of our Weblog or HERE.