MC-Tanzania’s Dental Therapist Outreach Training Program aims to ensure improved community dentistry for all Tanzanians, a goal toward which its team works tirelessly every year by conducting various forms and activities.
One of the forms is by enhancing the capacity (ability to set up and carry out Dental Outreach (Education, Screening, and Treatment) for primary schools of final-year dental therapy students through school-based community outreach. Another form is by providing access to oral health education and care, through MC-Tanzania dental outreaches and alumni-led dental outreaches to disadvantaged individuals, such as primary school children who most often have limited dental services access.
Only from 2021-2023, the program has reached 19, 480 primary school students with oral health education, has screened 9,706 primary school students, and treated 1,974 primary students.
Additionally, 95% of Dental therapist students reported having increased confidence, knowledge, and skill levels in delivering school dental services.
The program offers unique leadership skills to dental therapist students through a customized curriculum that places leadership at the center of the program implementation.
“For this, we rely on the guiding principle that “preventative services offer the only realistic solution to relieving the oral health disease burden in the country with limited resources,” says MCT’s Program Officer, Sara Mtagwa.
In addition, the program trained 339 on leadership through capacity building during community outreach services in primary school settings.
As seen from the numbers, this program upholds the significant focus on the sustainability and scalability of other programs at MC-Tanzania, demonstrating its long-term benefits. It further catalyzes other initiatives aimed at improving healthcare in the community, such as partnerships with the Foundation for Preventative Health (FPH) and SKYGEN Foundation International through collaborative efforts under the Community Health Fellowship program.
As part of strengthening practical training in community-based dentistry for dental therapists, the project places great weight on preventative services, as it offers the only realistic solution to relieving the oral health disease burden in the country with limited resources. Dental Therapists, who are the oral health middle cadre more often posted to the primary health care facilities are therefore considered the “backbone of oral health” in Tanzania and serve the oral health community workforce.
MC-Tanzania introduced a new approach moving from a a conventional approach to laying the groundwork for consistent two-week intensive student outreach experiences. This method uses the dental outreach platform to incorporate a robust capacity-building component, through leadership training as something we do, not as something we are, ensuring that dental therapists are well-equipped to deliver community-based dentistry effectively., throughout the program.
