Dental Therapy School Filling a Gap
In October 2022, the original vision of the founders of the Trinity Dental Clinic was finally realized when a training program for dental providers inducted its first students. With just a handful of trained dentists and dental therapists available in Liberia to serve more than 5 million people, people are suffering and even dying from oral infections and disease. To address this shortage, Dr. Simon Stretton-Downes OBE BDS, an SIM-UK missionary, brought together an international coalition of dental educators, benefactors, and organizations to create the Liberia Dental Therapy School. The two-year program is particularly focused on recruiting students from rural areas where the need is the most desperate, and to where they will return to practise basic dentistry. Whenever the TDC staff sponsor rural outreach clinics, dozens of people arrive to have painful and infected teeth removed, some walking for hours. But the team’s ability to serve the need is limited by time and personnel. It will take years, but equipping qualified personnel with the knowledge, accreditation and tools to serve patients in those areas will save lives. Please pray for the eight students next week when they will take their first round of exams. Click on the links in this post to learn more about the Trinity Dental Clinic.
