As a Dentist, I am running for a cause and charity close to my heart, the Dental Wellness Trust (DWT). Below is some more information about the work the charity is doing and why. Please take a couple of minutes to read.

Children's Oral Health:

In the UK alone, more than 500 school kids are admitted to hospital for dental treatment every week, this is the most common reason for children attending hospital. Add to that figure the hundreds if not thousands of kids across the country every week who have to sit and suffer in pain before they are even seen by a dentist purely due to the fact they don't attend regularly or look after their oral health. They miss school, don't eat, feel unwell and to be hospitalised for something that is preventable is quite shocking. 

Elderly Oral Health:

But its not just kids that suffer, another extremely vulnerable group of people is the elderly. We all have either family members or friends that reside in a care home or who are frail and living at home. These individuals are suffering terribly from poor oral health but the impacts on their general health are extremely worrying. Often not prioritising their oral health due to other concerns, their oral health deteriorates. Teeth are broken, dentures don't fit and they suddenly stop eating, develop infections, struggle to talk due to mouth sores, not to mention the pain from chronic dry mouth from the multitude of medications they are often taking. This can quickly lead to malnourishment and a further deterioration in health. Furthermore, there is now a great deal of research linking gum disease with other health disorders such as dementia, heart and respiratory disease.

What we are doing:

The Dental Wellness Trust is currently establishing toothbrushing programmes in schools in both the UK and South Africa and we are also trying to set up oral health programmes and clinics at elderly care homes also in the same countries.

Your donations go directly to support these programmes with providing resources, training, staffing and facilities for all of this valuable work to take place. 

My target of £1500 will be enough to fully train and support an oral health practitioner for an entire year in Cape Town to help manage our toothbrushing programmes.

Please do have a look at the website to see some of the work taking place so you can see exactly where your donations would be going to.

www.dentalwellnesstrust.org

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