Donating To Dentaid: Providing Dental Care To Those Who Need It Most
December 7th, 2023
Brewers were thrilled to be able to
donate £500 to Dentaid, to help them redecorate a vital space to carry out
their life changing work.
Dentaid,
The Dental Charity, provides outreach dental care for people experiencing
homelessness and other socially excluded groups across the UK. There are 8
mobile charity dental units that will be used to deliver 500 clinics in the UK
this year from the Channel Islands to Scotland and Belfast to Norwich.
Every
clinic has a volunteer dentist and dental nurse who give up their time to help
some of the most vulnerable people in their community to access dental care. Their
patients include people experiencing homelessness, survivors of abuse, cancer
patients, fishing communities, refugees, families living in poverty and people
living with and overcoming addiction. Treatment is free for all patients and they
believe that accessing dental care can help them feel more confident and improve
their chances of moving on to a new chapter in their lives.
The
pandemic compounded an already existing problem for post radiotherapy patients
in accessing dental care as many dentists in practice are quite reluctant to
provide treatment, often due to a lack of training and unsure as to guidelines
and protocols for the management of this specialist group of patients. (In
short, radiotherapy may attack the cancer, but it has a disastrous effect on
the gums, teeth and mouth). As a result, they are almost falling into observed
neglect. The partnership between Dentaid and University Hospital Southampton
(UHS) has funded two years of clinics, one every two weeks, for head and neck
cancer patients referred by the UHS.
Although
most of the clinics are delivered on the charity dental units outside soup
kitchens, hostels, night shelters and community buildings etc some of the patients,
such as people living with head and neck cancer who have access to transport,
can see a dentist on a unit parked outside their head office in Totton.
Prior
to Brewers’ support, the waiting room had unmatching, donated armchairs that
were impossible to clean and didn’t have suitable armrests for patients to push
themselves up from. The room was cold and in a poor state of decoration.
“Brewers’
support has enabled us to refurbish and redecorate the space to make it more
welcoming for our patients who are living with head and neck cancer and require
dental care. We have also purchased three new chairs that are suitable for
clinical waiting rooms and can be wiped down to reduce cross-infection
risk. The room is now warm, bright and more professional and we are very
grateful for Brewers’ support.”
Jill
Harding, Head of Communications and Corporate Relations.