Dental Tribune UK Edition, October 11-17, 2010, No.25 Vol.4

I want you to imagine trying to set up a new dental clinic in the middle of East Africa where hardly any resources exist for professional develop- ment, clinical audit and govern- ance and the training of your dental nurse! This was the situ- ation that we found ourselves in as Bridge2Aid when we opened Hope Dental Centre in October 2004. Being a commercial den- tal practice situated in the heart of Mwanza city and the hub of our operations we were able to provide quality dental services and use the profits generated to facilitate projects in local com- munities in partnership with the government of Tanzania. In those early days, when we had a small team, we recognised that to bring quality and sustainabil- ity we needed to ensure that the clinical team were being prop- erly trained and responsible for good policies and procedures that are necessary to oper- ate a busy and effective dental practice. Since that time, and with the help of many in the dental trade and profession, Hope Dental Centre has grown to be the effective and signifi- cant dental practice it is today, with a clinical and admin staff of nine people. Our relationship with Smile- On has been invaluable as we have looked to train and devel- op our team to the highest pos- sible standards. When Smile-On first donated the original cop- ies of DNNET and Key Skills it allowed us to have access to a comprehensive resource whereby our trainee den- tal nurses had easy access to the information and skills re- quired to develop themselves as dental nurses. The Key Skills format was invaluable for the professional develop- ment of our clinical team and allowed them to stay fo- cussed on the policies and procedures required in their clinical practice. Even though we had the struggles of computer hardware not being available in the clinic and we often needed to do our training on laptops, we were still able to use these excellent resources for the training of the clinical team. At one stage Ian had the opportunity to speak Where there are smiles, there is Hope Bridge2Aid clinical director Ian Wilson shares his experiences of using Smile-on educational programmes in his Tanzanian practice, the Hope Dental Centre ‘We were able to provide quality den- tal services and use the profits generated to facilitate projects in local communities.’ A sign of Hope for dental patients in Mwanza, the October 11-17, 20106 Feature United Kingdom Edition