Ballymoney GDP returns on care mission to Eastern Europe

A team of Antrim dental professionals are flying out to Albania in August to provide much-needed oral healthcare and advice.

The team, which will consist of dental and medical professionals, will be heading out to the eastern European country on 27 August.

This will be the third year that dentist Anne Bell from Ballymoney will be visiting Albania and this time she will be joined by Scottish dentist David Bell, Broughshane hygienist Janet Knight and Janet’s daughter Sarah, who is a dental nurse.

Anne explained that she was alerted to the original trip three years ago by Dr Brian Lynch, who will again be leading the medical delegation on the visit. He asked Anne to head out to eastern Europe in order to set up a dental clinic to treat the local population who have little or no access to dental care. Anne explained: “The first time we went out we were way up in the mountains in a little hut with no flushing toilets and no facilities, but we were still able to set up a clinic.”

Anne described the oral health of the locals as very poor and on previous visits they have mainly been carrying out extractions and relieving pain. However, on their last visit, the American charity Adopt a Child had erected a building to feed the local street kids, with the upper floors being turned into medical and dental clinics.

This time around Anne’s hope, along with her dental colleagues, is to encourage a local dentist to use the facility on a regular basis and to potentially train up a local to act as a dental nurse.