Five dental business consultants are taking on their ultimate challenge, cycling almost 1,000 miles in fifteen days to raise funds for three wonderful charities – Cancer Research, Bridge2Aid and BrushUpUK. Chris Barrow, Les Jones, Sheila Scott, Simon Tucker and Ashley Latter have set themselves an ambitious target; between them they’re hoping to raise £50,000. The team has been sponsored by four industry stalwarts – Practice Plan, Dental Sky, Wesleyan and Dental Focus.

Explaining why they chose these three charities, Ashley commented, “We will all be touched in some way by cancer in our lives, so supporting the work of Cancer Research is something everyone can get behind.  We’ve also chosen two special charities within the dental sector.  Bridge2Aid does amazing work in Africa training local medical officers to carry out basic dentistry and, as a result, helps thousands of people out of pain and suffering.  BrushUpUK is a charity that believes that everyone should have the knowledge and skills to access and maintain a good standard of oral health and works with professionals within the sector to provide education and guidance to vulnerable groups in society”.

A fundraising page has been created for anyone who would like to support the challenge. 

Additionally, you may like to challenge yourself and join the five for a leg or a day of the journey. Dust off your cleats, dab on your chamois cream and join the team! There are five places available for each day. For more information, or to make a donation, visit www.fivegoforth.co.uk.

Bridge2Aid is gearing up for its national fundraising day – Smile in Pink. This is a day during National Smile Month when people in the UK dental community come together to wear pink and fairy wings proudly for a very good cause – to ensure millions in East Africa have access to safe emergency dental treatment.

This year, the event will take place on 2^nd of June and Bridge2Aid is rounding up businesses, organisations, dental practices and supporters to join forces with thousands of others who believe that everyone has the right to be pain-free.

Imagine suffering with a painful toothache for months or years; the pain being so great you miss work or struggle caring for your family. Or imagine your child in pain and not able to attend school. Then imagine having no access to safe dental care.

In fact, more than 70% of the world’s population has no access to the most simple dental pain relief, leaving billions to face a daily battle in the toughest of life circumstances. There is a desperate need to tackle oral disease, infection and chronic pain in communities throughout the developing world.

The money raised during Smile in Pink Day 2017 will fund emergency dental training programmes for rural health workers in the developing world, so that they can provide life-changing dental care in their communities.

“Every year on Smile in Pink Day, friends and supporters from around the world help to change and save lives – freeing millions in East Africa from the prospect of unnecessary pain and suffering caused by untreated oral disease and infections”, said Mark Topley, Bridge2Aid's CEO.

He continued, “This event really brings the dental community together and provides fantastic support for the work the whole Bridge2Aid family delivers in East Africa.”

About Smile in Pink Day

Since 2014, Smile in Pink Day has seen thousands of people in the dental community come together during National Smile Month to wear pink and fundraise for Bridge2Aid’s work. The theme this year is fairy wings and fairy cakes, and the money raised will provide intensive, practical training in emergency dental skills to existing health workers in East Africa – ensuring those in the poorest communities are able to function free from unnecessary pain, and avoid the risk of preventable infections and diseases.

About Bridge2Aid

Bridge2Aid is a UK-registered charity that aims to provide emergency dental training to rural health workers in East Africa. Since 2002, Bridge2Aid has had a big impact, having delivered 83 training programmes in Tanzania and Rwanda, as well as having successfully trained 461 government health workers, providing access to emergency dental treatment for over 4.6 million people.

Our vision is a world free of dental pain and our work provides long-term, lasting solutions by passing skills into local hands. For more information, visit www.bridge2aid.org and follow @Bridge2Aid on Twitter.

To register for Smile in Pink Day 2017 and get your participant kit, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

For more information, visit www.bridge2aid.org

UK dental practices are being offered the unique opportunity to take part in a charity auction to win a brand new A-dec Performer dental operating unit. This chair has been donated by Adec and SPS Dental in support of the charity Bridge2Aid.  It’s your opportunity to win a top class chair for a very reasonable price – and for all the money to go towards an amazing cause. And as part of this great opportunity SPS have offered to deliver and install the chair for no cost to anywhere in the mainland UK

You can make a bid today on this fantasic A-dec Performer chair by visiting the Bridge2Aid charity ebay auction site -  www.bridge2aid.org/charity-auction

A-dec are long term partners in the work of Bridge2Aid and SPS Dental are now joining them as another piece of the important support structure for the charity.  Bridge2Aid works to free communities in the developing world from chronic pain by teaching vital new skills to rural health workers.  Over 70% of the world has no access to any form of safe treatment for oral diseases and infections.  People are abandoned to agony for months and years.  They face life-threatening infections and pain that is so severe that they cannot work, go to school or feed their families.  Bridge2Aid’s unique solution is providing intensive practical training to existing health workers in emergency dental skills to treat and educate.  The support of companies such as A-dec and SPS Dental is vital in carrying out this work.

A-dec are the world’s leading manufacturer of dental operating units, with over 30 years experience supplying to the UK high street practices, NHS centres, educational facilities and HM Armed Forces.  A-dec Dental UK has been a major supporter of Bridge2Aid for over a decade.  A-dec have also helped Bridge2Aid to equip and design the fee paying ‘Hope Dental Centre’ in Tanzania which raises additional funds to help get rural communities out of pain.

In addition to the amazing fundraising and project support that A-dec give to Bridge2Aid they also regularly host training & interview sessions and other large meetings at the four A-dec showrooms across the UK. In 2016 A-dec will once again host the Bridge2Aid team on their stand (I20) at BDIA Showcase 2016.

A-dec are supported in the UK by an extended distribution network, of which SPS Dental form a key part, SPS Dental have over 50 years’ experience as a specialist provider of dental equipment and dental surgery design. Providing its services to both the public and private sectors SPS are a proud supporter to the A-dec brand in the South East of England. SPS Dental has an enviable reputation as a highly regarded and respected company that provides its clientele with the very best in advice and service. Chris Knight’s drive and dedication is a pivotal part of the success of the partnership that has been built between A-dec and SPS over the years.  

Visit stand I30 at the BDIA Showcase to find out more from the SPS team and see the chair that is being auctioned.  

Riz Akhtar, Co- Founder of dental specialists RA Accountants, has begun training for the marathon of his life - a seven-day, 250km footrace across the Atacama Desert in an aim to raise charitable funds for Bridge2Aid.

Taking place from 2-8 October this year, the 4deserts Atacama Crossing Challenge is a 250km race which crosses Atacama Desert, around San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. Riz will face 6-stages in seven days with almost four Marathons in four days, then 74 km and a final stage of 11 km.

As one of the few deserts on Earth that doesn’t receive any rain, Atacama is a plateau in South America, covering a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the Pacific coast of South America, west of the beautiful Andes Mountains. Whilst the desert has an awe-inspiring and unique landscape of salt lakes, volcanoes, lava flows and sand dunes, it is fifty-times dryer than Death Valley. He will have to endure unpredictable terrain, harsh climate and an altitude that averages at 2,500 meters (8,000 feet).

The one-week challenge is self-supported, which means he will have to carry his clothes, sleeping bag, mandatory equipment, medical/safety kit and seven days’ worth of food in his backpack whilst journeying across the desert.

Noting his decision on Bridge2Aid as the chosen charity Riz, he said,

“I have always admired the work that Bridge2Aid have done through the years and it is remarkable how they have made a huge impact on individuals especially through the act of educating and training.”

Bridge2Aid aims to free communities in the developing world from chronic pain by teaching vital new skills to rural health workers. Over 70% of the world has no access to any form of safe treatment for oral diseases and infections. People are abandoned to agony for months and years. They face life-threatening infections and pain that is so severe that they cannot work, go to school or feed their families. The charity’s aim is to provide a unique solution by providing intensive practical training to existing in emergency dental skills to treat and educate. 

Not a newbie to marathons, Riz previously completed the six day and six stage 250km 4Deserts Gobi challenge run across China’s eastern province of Xinjiang last year, in line with the launch of RA Accountants charity RA Foundation.

Stay updated with Riz’ progress and journey in October by searching #RAforB2A on Twitter and Facebook. For more information or to sponsor Riz Akhtar on his 4Deserts Atacama October challenge visit:

http://www.justgiving.com/RAforB2A

www.raaccountants.com

Last week, a group of Dental Industry Leaders from the UK went on a fact finding trip with Bridge2Aid in Tanzania.

The group visited Kasamwa in Geita District where a Bridge2Aid team was training and treating. They met with the Site Clinical Lead, an experienced dentist with several trips under his belt who is leading the clinical team on this programme. Bridge2Aid’s sustainable model of training first attracted him and has kept him firmly committed ever since. The training team had already registered 99 patients for the morning, with more arriving as word spread.  Among the first to arrive that day was an 86 year old man who had started walking before dawn for 4 hours to reach the clinic, having been in pain for 2 years.

The visitors spent several hours touring the clinic and talking to volunteers, Health Workers (the trainees), and the local government dentist.  They viewed the treatment in progress, all performed today by the Health Workers, all of whom have passed the 9 day course, and coached by the training dentists who started work with them just last week. They saw the sterilisation processes used and taught to the Health Workers, and heard an oral health education talk given to the group of waiting patients by one of the Health Workers, a key component of Bridge2Aid’s programme.

The visitors gave us these reflections on the day:

Patrick Allen – Henry Schein Dental

 “The passion and dedication of the volunteers was incredible and meeting people who have been on 6+ programmes and who clearly will be back again was inspiring. …[this is] a special programme which is clearly creating lasting and sustainable change”

Alison Speak - Director Oasis

“Although I’d been on a B2A training day in the UK , to see, first hand , just what an impact the programme is having was very emotional. Everything I observed today (commitment of volunteers, skills of the  clinical officers in training, organisation and admin skills of the employed local staff) confirmed to me that the approach B2A have taken will effect lasting change.”

 Jason Newington – FMC

“An amazing and humbling day watching the Bridge2aid volunteers at work. To see the life changing effect their work has on the lives of the local people who have suffered for so long with pain, was truly incredible. Bridge2aid are simply making a massive difference to the community and its clear that the years of hard work and persistence by the team and volunteers has paid off”.

 Bob Newsome – Dentisan

“I witnessed great teamwork in play today, between indigenous Tanzanian Clinical Officers and Dental Volunteers from the UK- in less than ideal conditions the rhythm of work and the camaraderie established was a delight and pleasure to see”

Steve Booth – Straumann

“Today was truly an inspiring day in several ways. 

 “The patients, some clearly in pain and discomfort, were themselves immensely patient and grateful for the treatment they had or were about to receive. For a patient to have chronic dental pain and to be able to relieve it must have a dramatic effect on the quality of their lives. 

“The team spirit, respect and closeness of the volunteers was clear to see. The way they supported each other and the Clinical Officers was amazing. How they run such an efficient clinic in such an environment is astonishing and clearly a testament to the quality of the people and the process you have put in place.

 “To see all six clinical officers today taking charge of all of the clinical work shows what can be achieved with the right mindset and people. A truly inspiring day in so many ways.”

Note for editors

For further information please contact Paul Tasman at Bridge2Aid, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 07796 951855

As a Gold Unity Partner of Bridge2Aid, the Association of Dental Groups (ADG) is pleased to support the Kigurusimba Health Centre in the Pangani district, as part of the Dental Training Programme. 

Over the course of a six-day assessment, five Clinical Officers and the Bridge2Aid training team were able to treat a staggering 475 patients including Ndahane Mathias, a 37-year-old mother and farmer from Mkalamo village. 

Thanks to the provision of this treatment, Ndahane was able to have a tooth removed that had been plaguing her for a brutal three months.

By continuing to support the work of Bridge2Aid, deprived areas can be supplied with much needed equipment and training. Thanks to you, the Kigurusimba Health Centre and the five newly trained clinical officers – responsible for approximately 10,000 people – can deliver effective dental care that the local community needs. 

To find out how to donate, volunteer and support, contact ADG now: all together we can make a difference. 

For more information about the ADG visit  HYPERLINK "http://www.dentalgroups.co.uk" www.dentalgroups.co.uk

In June, Bridge2Aid sent two teams of UK dental volunteers to deliver emergency dental training in two new parts of rural Tanzania.
 

June also saw Bridge2Aid complete their 71^st training programme, meaning that they have now trained 369 rural health workers in emergency dental care. This sustainable model means that once the UK volunteers have left the country the health workers are able to continue treating their local communities for years to come.
 

The first area where training was delivered was Morogoro which is one of the poorest and most densely populated parts of Tanzania.  Most of the inhabitants are subsistence farmers who rely heavily on the surrounding forests for timber, medicinal plants and fuel. The other location was Pangani in the north-east of the country, bordered by Kenya and the Indian Ocean.
 

There is a desperate need to tackle oral disease, infection and chronic pain in communities throughout the developing world – to enable people to work, attend school and care for their families.  Bridge2Aid works hard to deliver the necessary skills in these communities so that local people are able to function free from pain, and avoid the risk of preventable infections and diseases.

If you would like to get involved, either by volunteering or donating to help fund this vital training, please visit Bridge2Aid’s website here (www.bridge2aid.org)