Dentist returns from Africa (From Witney Gazette)

Dentist returns from Africa

1:12pm Tuesday 28th August 2007 in Witney By David Horne

MOST Africans who want pain relief from tootache end up with immediate extractions.

That was on-the-spot Third World dentistry for Paul Read, who has just come back from a one month locum-ship in Tanzania. After 27 years as a member of the Witney Dental Practice, at Market Square, he thought he was ripe for playing his skill somewhere else in the world, and responded to a call for volunteers in one of the profession's journals.

"When someone comes in from a remote village after travelling six hours on a bus, you can't say come back next week for a filling," he said.

"He wants pain relief, so you take the tooth out there and then. It's like stamping out bush fires."

Mr Read, who lives at Crawley, stood in for a practice in the city of Mwanza by the shores of Lake Victoria while the resident dentist took a month out for holiday.

He was on his own but assisted by a team of dental nurses, and reckons he treated about 30 patients a day, many just coming in from the street.

"It was blooming hard work, with long days. Back here in Witney, there's a lot more emphasis on prevention, and people are more keen to keep their teeth as long as they can.

"I ended up exhausted, but elated. It's the first time I've volunteered like this, and I'll have to see whether I'll do it again."

Mr Read is among a growing number of professional people, along with gap-year students, volunteering to work abroad in Third World countries.

He 'enlisted' through B2A, a dental and community development programme set up in Tanzania in 2002. In the central African country, there is one dentist to every 300,000 people, compared to the UK statistic of one to 2,300.

The programme not only provides basic dentistry but also supports a local leper colony and orphanage, providing shelter and food for street children.

Mr Read added: "I'm very glad I did it. It certainly opens your eyes to what we have here and take for granted."