A THOUSAND SMILES

What does it take to make a thousand smiles? We went behind the scenes at our most recent annual dentist clinic in November 2022 to find out. Assistant Footprint director, Cecilia Mueni, chatted to us about the mind-boggling logistics that go into making these life-changing annual clinics take place.

Cecilia Mueni (centre) with some of the Sasaab dental clinic team

We improved 997 smiles to be exact. This included patients as young as six and as old as almost one hundred! Plus, we saw over 400 patients for general medical care.

Where did the clinic take place?
This year we ran clinics in two locations. First, a week long clinic took place in Kisumu, a town in north-western Kenya, where we made our makeshift dental surgeries at a Hindu Temple and then at a Sugar Company. The county governor was invited to open the clinic, it was a big deal! After this, we moved between Samburu communities around Sasaab. Here we visited four different locations, including the newly constructed dispensary at Ngutuk, moving our clinic almost every day which was quite a mission. This included Archer’s Post, the biggest Samburu settlement, where we saw 112 patients. We’ve made good relationships with the county government, who help us run the clinics.

Setting up one of the mobile dental clinics

What is needed to set up the clinics?
A lot of equipment, a lot of paperwork and months of prior organisation! I was blown away by how much goes on behind the scenes to make this happen. Bringing in all the specialised dental equipment is quite challenging. It is shipped from England and needs clearance to enter the country from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists’ Board. Our driver collected 14 bags of heavy equipment from the airport, which he drove eight hours to Kisumu. After this, he drove it back to Nairobi before making the long trip to Samburu. The dentist team were lucky enough to fly!

Specialised dental equipment for world class medical services in the bush

There are less than 1000 dentists in the whole of Kenya.

Who are the dental clinics for?
Dentists are few and far between in Kenya. So the clinics are for anyone and everyone that needs help. In Kisumu, we saw 160 patients every day, including lots of children. The urban children are much more fearful compared to the rural kids near Sasaab, who seem to have a higher pain threshold. In the communities around Sasaab, there were about 75 patients a day. Compared to last year, this was double, as word got round from the previous year’s clinic – some people had waited a whole year to see us. The lodge team from Sasaab were also welcomed for dental care.

One of the SmileStar dentist volunteers in action

Who runs the clinics?
A team of 14 volunteers flew out from the UK charity SmileStar, including six dentists, one doctor plus seven dental nurses and hygienists. These were joined by one Kenyan dentist, George Moi, plus helpers from the lodge and our Footprint team who acted as temporary dental nurses and translators. I became a dental nurse; I now know a lot about the upper and lower teeth! The youngest assistant was 16 years old, daughter of one of the dentists. Alongside the volunteers, the clinics are funded by our Footprint foundation.

What was it like being at the clinics?
It was hectic and the days were long. At each clinic we set up eight dentist stations, with all the specialised apparatus and needle disposal and such like. Sterilising the equipment between every patient is a challenge. It takes around twenty minutes, so you must be very organised with the next set of equipment ready to use whilst others are boiling.

Some of the dental clinic team blowing off steam after a long day of saving smiles!

How do people know about the clinics?
One week before the clinics start, I travelled to Samburu with my colleague Natasha. We met the Minister of Health who introduced us to the pastor and helped us arrange all the necessary documentation. We put Swahili posters up at the four different Samburu venues to let people know they were all welcome. One patient from the community who came on the final day to the Westgate clinic had been suffering from excruciating tooth pain for over three years. He was delighted the dentists were running a clinic and he could have his tooth removed to alleviate the pain.