News and events

Visiting the dentist might be routine for many of us but one of our dental nurses recently visited a community where access to pain-free, patient-led dentistry is more limited.

Laura Osborn, a dental nurse with our Special Dental Care Service took part in a five-day volunteer trip with dental relief charity Dental Mavericks to help educate on oral health and relieve dental pain in impoverished communities in Essaouira, Morocco.

Over the course of the five days, Laura who was one of eight dental nurses on the trip, visited three schools and saw more than 500 children.

Each time they visited a new school, the group, which also included two dentists, two dental therapists and four translators setup triage chairs, treatment chairs, an OHI/fluoride application station, post op extraction station and decontamination area.

Laura said: “I have been working as a dental nurse for over 14 years now and for most of my career I have wanted to do a dental volunteer trip abroad. I discovered Dental Mavericks and thought I would give them a go. I had planned to pay for the trip myself but had also set up a 'Just Giving' fund raiser webpage, which did help with the funds!

“We were triaging patients primarily on a pain basis. It was very fast paced work, and we saw 512 kids over five days. We did lots of extractions, used lots of SDF (silver diamine fluoride) and did lots of GIC (glass ionomer cement) fillings too.

"The kids of Morocco are amazing, very resilient and so grateful. I found the experience extremely emotional, eye opening and rewarding and I would highly recommend to everyone!”

Laura is now qualified to do fluoride varnish application, which will be useful for the trust’s dental service.