Dental health forms a fundamental component of physical health. It not only impacts overall health, but immense amounts of pain can be relieved with access to dental care.
In the past many thought that real dental care for indigenous people could only be offered by a mission compound or a dentist from the west flying in for two weeks. These dentists frantically tried to treat all maladies, but returned heartbroken at the needs that they were forced to leave behind.
A new paradigm was needed to see sustainable care. We created a system to train indigenous Christians to provide for themselves these basic needs utilizing new and low cost technologies. The Dental Module empowers those who have been both born and born again into that culture. When the program is completed, a team of Community Health Workers (CHW) stand ready to minister whenever a dental need arises and will use the bridge of service to share the gospel.
The Dental Module is a comprehensive training and technology package to equip a training dentist to educate indigenous trainees to perform basic dental procedures. This is accomplished through a non-verbal training video series and hands on training for six days. Instruction also includes information on how to integrate a Christian worker into the culture, serve the people they are called to, and generate the means to materially support the worker’s family.
