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Volunteer in the UK

Spend a day volunteering on one of our mobile dental units providing dental care for people experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable or hard-to-reach communities.

  • Clinics take place on our vehicles outside hostels, day centres, soup kitchens, community centres and public buildings.
  • Positions are voluntary although we are able to pay modest expenses for some clinics.
  • Volunteering opportunities for dentists, dental nurses and non dental assistants.

For many homeless and vulnerable people, accessing dental care is incredibly difficult. According to research by the charity Groundswell, 70 per cent of rough sleepers have lost teeth since becoming homeless, 30 per cent are living with dental pain and 15 per cent have tried to extract their own teeth.

Our mobile dental units visit soup kitchens, hostels and day centres, with volunteers providing free pain relieving dental treatments, preventive and restorative care and oral health advice. Our aim is to help patients out of dental pain and help to restore their self esteem.

Many patients will not have seen a dentist for many years and may be suffering from anxiety, mental health problems and long-term dental pain. By running a clinic in a location where they feel safe and familiar, we can help them out of immediate pain and help them to re-engage with dental care.

Our UK volunteers provide free screening and treatment for all our patients including oral cancer checks, scale and polish, fluoride varnish, x-rays, fillings and extractions.

We have volunteering opportunities for dentists and dental nurses on board our mobile dental unit and we also need volunteers to help take medical histories and ensure the smooth running of our clinics. Our volunteer teams work alongside Dentaid The Dental Charity staff and project workers from the charities we work with.

In addition to helping people experiencing homelessness, we also provide dental care for head and neck cancer patients, refugees and asylum seekers, families experiencing poverty, military veterans, survivors of abuse, fishermen and their families, children in areas of high social deprivation and victims of domestic violence.