An ambitious plan to give one thousand of the neediest patients nearly a million dollars worth of free dental care has almost been accomplished last August, says Mervin Saultry, director of the National Dental Foundation (NDF).
The NDF held its annual charity days simultaneously across all states in August this year to coincide with what has traditionally been oral health month. They received some support for the initiative from Colgate.
This was a break from the last four years of the Foundationīs existence, when its charity days have been held according to when was convenient for volunteers.
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"We decided to concentrate everything into that one month, which meant we had to scale up our normal effort," says NDF director, Mervin Saultry. "So this year we had a bigger scale of operation." The National Dental Foundation was started as an umbrella organisation to co-ordinate the charity work that was already being done by dentists on an ad hoc basis. It is independent from other professional and industry associations, although such associations support the NDF's work. "We generally treat patients nominated by charities who are in genuine need," said Mr Saultry. |
"We give the discretion of selection for treatment to major charities who work with the genuine needy every day and can readily identify the most in need. We can really reach down to people who have the most need-the health system has forgotten these people."
Mr Saultry says the greatest number of volunteer dentists, hygienists and therapists were in Western Australia, followed by New South Wales. The only state that didnīt participate in the charity day was Tasmania.
"The target we were reaching for was $1 million worth of treatment," he says. "Iīd say we came in below that figure, but I estimate a figure of about $700,000 which is worked out based on the number of appointments, at an average treatment of $150 per person."
One of the best outcomes from the charity days, he says, is the increasing number of volunteer dentists turning up to help.
"As people participate we are getting increasing numbers of volunteers-they see the need and the level of appreciation from people who receive treatment," he says. "And that helps with increasing volunteer numbers."
