Pictured above: Youngsters in Quito learn about dental
hygiene during Mission Ecuador event
A local dental implant supplier has generously played its part
in putting the smile back on the face of patients in South
America.
Shrewsbury-based Implantium donated a number of surgical
instruments to the Mission Ecuador project, a week-long expedition
organised by the Dental Community Fellowship based in South
Carolina, which was assisted by Dr Nigel Mallon, owner of
Taptonville House Dental Practice in Sheffield, in collaboration
with the Sheffield School of Clinical Dentistry.
The mission saw a 69-strong team of dentists and undergraduate
students from the UK and United States offer dental treatment,
surgery and advice to thousands of local patients. The group set up
a temporary clinic at a church in Quito, Ecuador's capital city,
and provided oral surgery, pain relief, and other dental treatments
to more than 3,000 patients with ages ranging from three to 101. As
part of the project, they also visited 10 local schools to teach
4,000 children basic oral hygiene and how to look after their
teeth.
"The work carried out by everyone involved with Mission Ecuador
is incredibly inspiring," Julie Davies, Group Manager for
Implantium, explained. "I'm told that some of the patients they
treated had been in excruciating pain as a consequence of not
having access to regular dental treatment, so I'm just so pleased
that our surgical instruments have been able to help relieve such
suffering."
Alexandra Day, Vice President of Sheffield University Dental
Students' Society (SUDSS), revealed: "The muco-periosteal elevators
that Implantium so kindly donated were a massive help. Many of the
patients in Ecuador had never seen a dentist or had gone without
treatment for years, and subsequently many had teeth in a
particularly deteriorated state that we had to extract."
Implantium is a leading UK-based supplier of high-quality,
cost-effective dental implants. Run for dentists, by dentists,
Implantium is also home to the Implantium Network, a match-making
service which helps place patients interested in getting an implant
fitted, with skilled dentists in their local area.