Dental student bringing smiles to Nepal
A UCC dental student is raising funds to travel to Nepal this summer to provide free dental care for disadvantaged communities.
4th year student Cathy O’Rourke will set off from Ireland on 29 June with a group of 11 other dental students from Ireland and abroad.
During their 10 day stay, the students will be treating Nepalese people who have had little or no access to dental care, at no cost.
The treatments will include restorations, extractions (surgical and non-surgical), prescription provision and oral hygiene instructions.
Working with local Nepalese dental group Around Good People, the students will rent the use of a temporary clinic and surgery. They will be bringing dental materials and supplies from Ireland along with everyday oral care products such as toothbrushes and toothpaste.
According to Ms O’Rourke, many of the communities had access to dental care pre-Covid-19 but since the beginning of the pandemic, no outreach programme has been able to reach many of the villages that need it the most.
The students feel it is now imperative that they treat these communities to prevent oral infections and diseases from becoming systemic and potentially life-threatening.
Speaking to the Cork Independent, Ms O’Rourke said she is looking forward to being able to do her part to help the local people. She said: “There's some people that haven't had any access at all so they are really in need now and I'm excited to be able to provide that. We'll probably be doing a lot more restorative care than preventative care because there hasn't been an outreach programme in so long. If they're in a lot of pain, that would probably motivate people get help.”
Ms O’Rourke said one of the main goals of the programme is to help educate communities about the importance of dental care and how to improve and maintain their dental health going forward. “The main goal is to teach them how to help themselves. Preventative care, oral hygiene advice, diet advice, toothbrushing techniques,” she said.
This will not be the first time Ms O’Rourke has travelled abroad to help disadvantaged communities: “I'm absolutely mad about travelling. I actually went to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) with the HOPE Foundation.
“Culture shock is definitely a good way of describing it. It's a whole different world over there, their attitude towards everything, even if they're living in slums and conditions are really poor, they're just such happy people.”
To help raise crucial funds for the outreach programme, Ms O’Rourke has set up a GoFundMe page called Dental Aid Nepal. All donations are hugely appreciated and all funds raised will be used for providing aid.