African visit fills a gap in dental care

A dentist has returned from Africa where he helped hundreds of people in a country still recovering from genocide.

Dr Mike Greenwood (60) of Trentside, Gunthorpe, visited Rwanda, to support local dentists and treat people who normally would not have the chance to see a dentist.

He was joined by his son, Mr Ben Greenwood (24) who hopes to start a graduate dental training course next year.

Mr Greenwood acted as his father’s assistant during the three-week trip.

The pair went with Project Umubano, the Conservative Party’s social action project in Rwanda. Umubano means friendship and co-operation in Kinyarwandan, one of Rwanda’s official languages.

Dr Greenwood, who set up Minster Dental Centre, Southwell, in April 1977, said he was not political but joined the project to go to a third world country.

After taking semi-retirement from the practice in February after 32 years, Dr Greenwood said he wanted to do something different and give something back.

He said: “We have been a very fortunate generation we baby boomers, so it is lovely to be able to give something back.”

Dr Greenwood went to Rwanda with £2,000-worth of dental equipment and materials thanks to donations from colleagues and patients at the Minster Dental Centre.

The materials he did not use were left in Rwanda.

As well as dental equipment, Dr Greenwood also took toys, footballs and dictionaries for children in Butare.

He took money donated by some Southwell residents especially for children, which he gave to sisters of the Roman Catholic Medical Missionaries of Mary, which have a mission in the area.

Dr Greenwood said: “I wanted to create goodwill. There is no point just doing dentistry.

“They have nothing. It was just an absolute thrill to be able to do that.”

Dr Greenwood was the first dentist to join Project Umubano.

There are only ten dentists and 100 dental therapists in Rwanda, responsible for treating 9m people — around 800,000 people per dentist.

Dr Greenwood said: “I was only tickling the surface.”

During the trip Dr Greenwood stayed in a mission hospital in Butare in the south western part of the country.

While at the hospital he did some teaching and treated patients, many of whom had travelled for two days to get there.

He also visited mission hospitals in the surrounding area, travelling for up to two hours in a four-wheel drive vehicle over bumpy terrain.

One of the Rwandan dental therapists acted as an interpreter for Dr Greenwood, but he said by the end of the trip he was able to say “open your mouth” and “close your mouth” in the language.

They saw more than 60 patients each day, with the majority of work being teeth extraction.

In one day he extracted 63 teeth.

Dr Greenwood said the state of teeth was poor as sugar was one of the few crops in the area.

Among the worst cases he saw were people with tongue tumours and cancer of the jaw, which he said a dentist would rarely see in the UK.

“When you get to my age in dentistry you become adaptable. You have to adapt to the facilities,” he said.

He said the equipment and facilities were incredibly basic and the lead dentist, who had been qualified for only two years, and her team were working under great difficulty.

Only one of the three dental chairs at the hospital worked.

There were no lights so Dr Greenwood had to work near windows, using natural light, and with head torches.

Some patients were treated while still holding their babies in their arms or on their backs. One woman was treated while breast feeding her child.

Dr Greenwood said Rwanda was keen to join the Commonwealth and now had English as its second language.

Its president, Paul Kagame, is keen to move the country forward from the 1994 genocide, when around 800,000 people were killed in 100 days.

Dr Greenwood said Rwanda’s past and its desire to move on was one of the reasons he wanted to go back there.

He said he intended to continue going to Rwanda and was in contact with the mission hospital in Butare where he was based.

Dr Greenwood is liaising with dental charities to see if they can provide equipment for the hospital and hopes to return soon.