Over four hundred people including homeless children in the Sang district of the northern region have received free dental treatment from a United States based dental team.
The team, the Montana Dental Outreach is a non-profit organization that supplies dentistry to children and the homeless.
Aside treatment. the team provided provided cavity protection, tooth paste and tooth brushes and educated them on to how use them without damaging their teeth.
The dental team, a Humanitarian Aid Group is in Ghana through the Nazareth Home for God’s Children at Sang.
Mothers and their children were also educated on how to keep their children’s teeth healthy and the proper use of tooth brush.
Other services provided by the team included proper hygienic practices, the type of food to eat that will not cause decay on the teeth among others.
The dental medical team was made up of four dentists and one hygienist and students from Carroll College in Helena-Montana U.S.A.
The Founder of Sheridan medical team, Dr Robert Thomas Bartolletti told Zaa News at Sang that his outfit has been providing medical service to all categories of people irrespective of their religious affiliations or color in Eastern Europe, Central and South America, Haiti and parts of West Africa, including Ghana for the last ten years.
Dr. Bartolletti said the team’s goal was to use their privileges in rendering service to others through volunteerism which will enable them give back thus making the world a better place.
“Often it is we who receive, it is our eyes that open, and our lives are changed forever when we go on service with Montana Dental Outreach Team,” the DMD founder stated.
A changed life, Dr. Bartolletti observed, was stronger when shared with others who have also been changed. The team, he further explained, was seeking to foster and discover the joy of helping, giving and sharing with those in need through volunteerism
The team also identified tooth decay among adults and children as the major dental problem in the Sang district. A retired American teacher, Madam Lee White, who convinced the dentists to come to Ghana, urged parents to stop giving their children sugary products to avoid stains on their teeth.
She explained that unlike the US, where citizens take a lot of coca-cola and other sweet products but give much attention to their teeth, it is not the case in Ghana.
Madam Lee observed that the teeth of the people who visited the clinic are not cleaned very often like they do in the U.S. and therefore the effort to clean them took a little bit longer. This, she said, led to the build up of what the dentist called the tinder which stained the teeth.
She was, however, happy about the nature of the children’s teeth. ‘The teeth here among most of the children are good because their mothers don’t them coca-cola, candy and they don’t give them sweet biscuit,” she added.
“We did treat a child with rotten teeth and when we asked the mother what happened, she confessed that she has been giving the child cola, so the dentist had to remove the rotten teeth to prevent further dental problems,” Mrs White said. She advised the people to inculcate the habit of regular dental care.
The Project Director of Sister-stans Children, Reverend Sister Stan Terese Mario Mumuni told Zaa News that accommodation for the dentists was the problem, adding that the Ebola outbreak delayed them from coming to Ghana because the initiative started since 2014.
Reverend Terse said the home was also confronted with a serious water problem which they managed to overcome with a mechanized well.
“God answered our prayers to overcome all the obstacles that nearly prevented the people of Sang from getting this unique opportunity,” SisterTerese explained.
According to the project director, the Catholic secretariat in Accra played a major role in the team a license to operate in Ghana.
The team, according to Sister Terese, arrived in Ghana on March 4, and will return to Accra en-route to the U.S. on March 11.