Dental charity Dentaid has launched an urgent appeal to repair two of its three mobile dental units and buy a new vehicle so homeless and vulnerable people can access dental care.

Last week two of the charitys vehicles that are both 20 years old - broke down. Dentaid is doing everything it can to keep its clinics running but has launched a fundraising appeal to cover the cost of urgent repairs and fund a new unit for the future.

Our mobile dental units work extremely hard for us and have been used for nearly 250 clinics this year helping the most vulnerable people in our society to access life-changing dental treatment, said Dentaid CEO, Andy Evans. But as with all vehicles, things go wrong and repairs are extremely costly. Last week was very challenging with our two oldest vehicles failing and needing recovery. We need to get them back on the road as soon as possible because the need for our work is greater than ever. However, we cant escape the fact that these are ageing vehicles and its becoming increasingly difficult to source parts for them. They will need to be replaced so that we can reach the people who need us most.

Next year Dentaid will have its first new purpose built mobile dental unit joining its fleet thanks to a series of fundraising events, including the Kilimanjaro climb by FMC founder Ken Finlayson and the Straumann Charity Bike Ride. Its schedule of clinics is already full.

We know how much people are suffering due to untreated toothache, particularly in underserved and hard to reach communities, added Andy. Thanks to our volunteers Dentaid is uniquely positioned to help by taking outreach dental care to them. But we need vehicles to achieve this. We are fundraising to help us get our two existing lorries back out where they are desperately needed, but also look to the future so we can build our fleet of purpose-built vehicles because we know that accessing dental care can improve our patients confidence and life chances.

The charity has set up a fundraising page where , as a supporter, you can donate to this urgent appeal.