There are many dentists in the UK. A number of them might opt to work abroad at some stage. However, very few will not only choose a poor and underdeveloped country such as Vietnam, but volunteer there for a charity. Katie did.
Katie Holdgate, a 24 year old Sheffield University graduate in Dentistry embarked on an emotional and challenging trip to Denang, Vietnam with the child dental charity East Meets West Dental Foundation. So what made Katie choose to do this? "I saw the chance to work abroad as a once in a lifetime opportunity and unlike many of my friends who travelled to America and Australia, I wanted to experience something different and feel I was doing some good in the world".
The remote mountain village was deprived and the children, all of school age, had never seen a dentist in their lives. "Most of them did not even own a toothbrush" Katie hastened to add. Their makeshift clinic was setup in the local school hall, which would play host to 400 of these young patients in little under a week. There were 2 volunteering dentists, Katie being one of them, and 3 Vietnamese dentists facing this mammoth task.