Background – While thousands of training and education resources have been developed in various disciplines of oral health for developed world contexts, very few quality resources appropriate to middle or low-income country contexts have ever been developed. The few resources developed to date have normally been produced within small development NGOs, are often limited or narrow in perspective and/or quality, and have rarely been disseminated much beyond the organisations themselves. Therefore, the vast majority of NGOs and oral health professionals attempting to implement oral health programmes in low income countries either go without relevant training resources (depriving them of key skills), or are forced to start from scratch in the development of their own resources.

Through its work with almost 200 NGOs in over 50 middle and low-income countries, Dentaid has probably the most developed contact base of NGOs engaged in oral health activities around the developing world. Yet while this network exists and Dentaid (and certain partner NGOs) have experience in developing such resources, development and dissemination of such resources have been severely limited to date by lack of funds.

Brief Description – The development and compilation of web based, CD-ROM and paper based resources (as appropriate), initially in the following subjects:-

Training manuals outlining strategies and techniques for oral health professionals and NGOs to implement and run community based oral health prevention programmes in middle and low-income countries. (Regional versions – Asian, African & South American. Languages – English, French, Spanish).

Dental engineer training resources for dental professionals and hospital technicians/engineers in regional treatment centres to maintain and service dental equipment. 

Training resources advocating and demonstrating good cross infection control during dental procedures in clinical (surgery based) and community (field) environments; Training resources demonstrating innovative dental treatment techniques suitable for rural communities    

Area of activity/(Partner Organisations) – Worldwide. (Governments and NGOs)

Strategic Partners & Consultants – UMN Oral Health Programme, Nepal. FDI World Dental Federation, other NGOs and Health Organisations
   
Anticipated Outcome

• Improved availability and wide dissemination of quality training resources designed specifically for the implementation and support of oral health programmes in low-income countries. This will lead to an improvement in the quality and success rate of such programmes, and the development of oral health professionals and relevant NGOs.