Dental Expo is proud to support the following charities:

BUTTERFLY TRUST

Butterfly Trust is a New Zealand and Vanuatu registered charity seeking to improve the lives of  people in rural Vanuatu by enhancing better access to health and education. It is about helping the locals to help themselves, forging long term relationships and building capacity into the future.

One of our longer term projects  involves strengthening dental services and promoting preventative oral health education on Malekula, the second largest island in the Vanuatu archipelago. This project was established in 2013, stemming from requests by the locals for essential dental care and pain relief. The aim of the project is to gradually develop basic dental services from a primary base at one of the local health centres. This involves working in partnership with ni-Vanuatu dental practitioners and  volunteer dentists, dental therapists and dental assistants from New Zealand.  Every year, joint teams work hard at delivering basic dental care to remote villages and schools, involving community screenings and activities around oral health and hygiene.

The Trust depends on the work of volunteers with diverse skills and experience, and funds its projects through donations, fundraising activities and by collaborating with like-minded organisations . It works closely with the Vanuatu government under Memoranda of Understanding with both Ministries of Health and Education. 

For more information or to donate, please visit www.butterflytrust.org

CANTERBURY CHARITY HOSPITAL TRUST

The Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust provides free dentistry and oral surgery services to Cantabrians in need, primarily to beneficiaries with a referral from their dentist. 

Over those years the hospital has grown from a single day surgery unit in 2007 to a complex of three two storey buildings housing two oral surgery/dentistry rooms, a general theatre with recovery ward, consulting and counselling rooms and an endoscopy theatre along with education and community meeting rooms.

The hospital’s free services include a wide range of surgical procedures (gynaecology, general surgery, orthopaedics, endoscopy, oral surgery), dentistry (for WINZ clients) and counselling (self referral).

To be eligible for free treatment, the patients have been turned down by the public health system, do not have medical insurance and do not have the means to pay for their treatment. They also need a GP referral.

The Charity Hospital’s services are completely free due to the tireless dedication of around 300 volunteer dentists, oral surgeons, surgeons, nurses, anaesthetists, technicians, counsellors, administration and support staff who give up their time to help others.

The Trust does not receive any Government funding and relies on fundraising events, donations and bequests to raise the funds required to run its free services.

For more information or to donate, please visit www.charityhospital.org.nz

SMILES FOR THE PACIFIC

SFTP was formed in late 2012, after a meeting at the NZDA conference between two like-minded dentists, Dr Jonathan Cole and Dr Mahendra Moopna.

They had a vision of creating an overseas aid program which was both sustainable and affective and involved utilizing a permanent site so that it could act as a training and treatment centre.

As well as treating patients, the local dental health professionals will be trained, up skilled and mentored.

Lautoka Dental Hospital, Fiji was chosen as a site for a number of reasons. Primarily, it needed to be in an area, which was easily accessible to an international airport so that overseas dental volunteers, mostly from Auckland, could access the destination easily via Nadi Airport.

The need for improved dental care, is clearly evident in Fiji and the area of Western Fiji is not so well catered for, as around Suva where they have Fiji National University [FNU] and most substantial medical and dental facilities.

SMILES FOR THE PACIFIC  has become more heavily involved in furthering dental education and has conducted two conferences in Fiji and the Solomon Islands, with another large one back in Fiji  planned for September 2020

This way we are following the mantra of “ teaching them to fish”  and positive results will follow.

We have also sent three containers of second hand dental goods to FIJI over the last seven years  giving access to equipment and dental materials which would otherwise not be available.

A FRIEND OF KOKOROSA
Creating access and oral health equity, a friend of Kokorosa is an experienced designer, implementer and evaluator of ingenious oral health projects in remote villages on South Pacific Islands. These unique projects are community driven which create sustainable and improved oral health outcomes.

While implementing the 2017 National Oral Health Survey in the Torres Islands Group, the most Northern Islands in the archipelago of Vanuatu, a friend of Kokorosa noted most ni-Vanuatu had painfully lost most their natural dentition by early adult life. Extremely remote, with no access to oral health services, children and adults who live here, do so in extreme discomfort.

Along with other existing remote island projects, 2020 will see a friend of Kokorosa partner again with Rotary International, in Torres, with ni-Vanuatu led oral health education, high quality preventive and restorative treatments and ongoing training for their own people.

https://www.facebook.com/people/Vanuatu-Cleft-Lip-and-Cleft-Palate-Support-Group/100083111413676/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

 
MERCY SHIPS

Mercy Ships operates the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, serving the developing nations of West Africa. For 10 months at a time, volunteers from New Zealand and around the world provide free essential surgeries and other healthcare services including free dental care, with a strong focus on local professional mentoring.
An international team of 14 members, volunteering from two weeks to 10 months, provide free assessment and oral care in environments where dental conditions are often extreme and sometimes life-threatening. 
Alongside the daily dental clinics, public oral education projects and dental team mentoring are part of the holistic Partner Unit Mentoring Program which utilises a team approach to improve transformational development in a specific unit. 
The PUMP mentoring approach used by Mercy Ships includes all those involved in patient care from the sterilisers and hygienists, to assistants and dentists. Mercy Ships offers in-depth mentoring to the Partner Unit, teaching and building on concepts to strengthen the entire dental system. 
In this multi-disciplinary setting, teamwork and communication is modelled, messaging is consistent, and deeper relationships can develop across a wider team and between individuals, increasing the opportunity for sustained improvement long after the Mercy Ship has departed.

For more information or to donate, please visit www.mercyships.org.nz

FAMILY TEETH MATTERS

Kiwi Decay Prevention for Kiwi Kids. 
We want to place a copy of Detective Sugar Spotter into every Low Decile School and Kindy in N.Z.
This Ingenious children’s book inspires families of young children to Kick the fizz away and embrace dental decay prevention.

Shocked that up to 90% of Kiwi 5-year-olds in low decile schools have dental decay, dental professionals Dr David and Cynthia Wallbridge created Family Teeth Matters. The book Detective Sugar Spotter educates both parents and kids, equipping families to effectively create healthy eating and decay prevention habits together. Understanding that childhood tooth decay is a completely preventable problem, Family Teeth Matters sets out with a creative preschool/school programme to present the primary fact that “It's all about what goes into a child's mouth.”  We invite you to be part of the Family Teeth Matters Programme to our most vulnerable families in New Zealand.

For more information or to donate, please visit www.familyteethmatters.nz