Dentaid marks a successful 2025 overseas
As 2025 comes to an end, Dentaid The Dental Charity is reflecting on a successful year helping to provide care to poor and remote communities in Uganda, Malawi and Cambodia.
Dentaid’s work overseas this year led to 4,889 adults and 5,963 children getting access to life-changing dental care. Our work took us to remote areas of Uganda, Malawi and Cambodia where people are experiencing poverty and have no other access to treatment. Many of those who visited our clinics had not seen a dentist before. Teams carried out 14,112 treatments ranging from extractions and fillings to fluoride varnishes and scale and polishes.
68 dental professionals were involved in three overseas trips to Uganda in the past 12 months, working alongside local dentists and NGOs to run dental clinics in prisons, orphanages, refugee camps, community centres, churches, schools and remote villages. These clinics can get incredibly busy with long queues and it wasn’t uncommon for teams to see upwards of 100 or even 200 people in a day.
Alongside our dental work, volunteer dental professionals also gave oral health education lessons to children at schools in the communities we visit and provided them with a toothbrush and toothpaste. Our language-free BrightBites programme covers the impact of high and low sugar diets, the importance of regular brushing, and good oral hygiene.
The work of volunteers is invaluable in allowing Dentaid to carry out these important clinics. Dentists and dental nurses self-fund their trips through online fundraising pages, covering expenses including flights, accommodation and meals. Many of those who work with us have spoken highly about their experiences and the enriching experience of being able to provide an important service to those in real need of dentistry.
Sophie Godson, who joined us as a dnetal nurse in Uganda in June, said: “The people we treated were incredibly grateful. Their appreciation was heartfelt and sometimes emotional. In the prisons, we received an especially moving response—prisoners wrote letters, gave speeches, and even performed dances to express their thanks. These moments were humbling and will stay with me forever.
“One of the most powerful memories I have is seeing the children—how they lived, what they played with, and what they ate. It gave me perspective in a way nothing else could.
“This experience has completely shifted my perspective on both dentistry and volunteering. It’s shown me how life-changing dental care can be—restoring not just health, but confidence and dignity. I feel privileged to have been able to help people become pain-free and to contribute, even in a small way, to their wellbeing.”
The mission of providing important care does not stop once volunteers have left the country. Dentaid also takes part in many outreach projects which serve to enhance the work of dental professionals in the countries that we visit, all year round.
This year, with the kind financial support of charities including Rotary organisations, Dentaid provided medical equipment, including refurbished dental tools and a portable folding chair, to two projects in rural Uganda where access to dentistry is scarce. These donations meant that dentists who had previously had to seat patients on folding sun loungers were finally able to use proper chairs for treatments.
We also supplied dental equipment to a number of overseas projects around the world, including more than 1,000 toothbrushes and hand instruments to charities working in Ukraine and the Gambia.
In 2026, Dentaid will embark on its 30th year of providing care to people in need across some of the poorest parts of the world. We are looking forward to continuing to support those in real need of dental treatment around the globe.