Students and teachers received comprehensive free-of-charge dental treatment including examinations and treatment.

Despite of the heat of hot weather 39^oC, the EMW Dental Staff and Volunteers still provided the dental cares for the children hereand teachers of these two primary schools.

About 2,740 quality dental services were given to 652 children and teachers through 745 patient visits during 8 treatment days of May 8 – 17. This was the fifth humantarian dental outreach trip conducted in 2019 by the EMW Dental and international volunteers.

The volunteers’ great teamwork, whole-heartedly dedication side by side with the EMW Dental Team helped bring back healthy smiles to the disadvantaged children of Que An and Que Phong mountainous schools in Que Son District.

The East Meets West Dental Center was set up by the East Meets West Foundation, an NGO serving disadvantaged people in Asia with programs for clean water and sanitation, healthcare and education.

The EMW Dental Program was founded in 1996 in Da Nang by Dr. Charles F. Craft, an American dentist from Alaska. Dr. Craft’s goal was to provide humanitarian dental care to disadvantaged children (orphans, from poor families, and with mental and physical disabilities) who have no other access to dental treatment.

Since 1996, the EMW Dental Programme has provided free dental services to poor and disadvantaged Vietnamese children, who otherwise have no access to dental treatment. Over the past 23 years, the EMW Dental Program has treated more than 140,000 children, delivering over 420,000 high-quality dental services with an estimated humanitarian value of USD 22 million. More than 80% of children treated by EMW have never seen a dentist before.

In 2012, a new East Meets West Dental Center opened its doors. This “business arm” of the Dental Program provides paying customers with high-quality dental services, and use the proceeds to fund its humanitarian dental programme for disadvantaged children in central Vietnam. 100% of the revenue generated by the Dental Center’s commercial dental practice goes directly to funding the EMW Dental Program.

The EMW Dental Center is the only dental practice in Southeast Asia operating this type of “social enterprise” business model./.

VNF