TRAINING FOR DENTAL TECHNICIANS

INTRODUCTION
While dental illnesses are decreasing in "rich" countries, they are increasing in developing countries. The reason for this pattern is that, these populations eat less traditional foods and more sweetened foods with sugar. In this feeding environment, traditional oral hygiene techniques, proper of each country, are not able to oppose to pathology advance. Naturally, dental treatment applications are increasing, but there are still few dentists and dental technicians that operate in developing countries. The majority of these operates in big urban agglomerations where they offer expensive service only to people that can afford it.
Dental technicians make dentures, crowns, bridges and dental braces that improve patients appearance, speech and their ability to chew. Dental technicians use a wide range of materials to design and construct appliances that meet the needs of each patient.
Considering the fact that the work of a dental technician affects the health and appearances of people, there is need for high standard of performance on the part of a dental technician. To this effect, a course for dental technicians is based on developments of good mechanical insight and skilful use of hands. This is reflected in the fact that the proposed course has great emphasis on hands-on session.
Training for dental technicians is essential in Malawi because the population is with time increasingly concerned about its appearance and speech and therefore the demand for dental products is increasing. Snap-shot interviews carried out recently suggest that there are less than 7 dental technicians in the Government health delivery system. The initiative proposed by St. Louis Montfort Parish is therefore one of such efforts towards improving the current situation. A state of the art dental facility is available at Andiamo Campus where students will be exposed to a wide range of techniques that are used in dental technology.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Andiamo Campus is in Balaka District in the southern region of Malawi. It is a centre run by Italian Father in training Malawian youths in various skills. The idea was a brain child of an Italian Priest, Father Mario Pacifici in 1978. Alleluia Band was the first to be established and it was based at St. Louis Montfort Catholic Parish until 1984. It was in 1984 when Father Mario thought of moving to an independent site called Andiamo Campus. The Campus was registered as Youth Cooperative Project the same year. Apart from the band, the Campus expanded to include the following disciplines; motor vehicle mechanics, welding, panel beating, carpentry and joinery, maize and vegetable gardening, animal husbandry, building, transportation, shoe repair, tailoring, hair salon, medical clinic, a vision centre and a photo studio. The number of youths has increased from 10 in 1984 to more than 500.

The Dental Clinic was established in 2001 sponsored by AFRICA TREMILA. With support and endorsement of the Minister of Health and Population, Hon. Yusuf Mwawa, Father Mario Pacifici facilitated the implementation of the Dental Clinic Project at Comfort Clinics. AFRICA TREMILA has provided personnel to assist with capacity building in the area of Dental Technology. This was the birth of the proposed Comfort Dental Training Centre.

The policy of Andiamo Campus is to train young Malawians, especially school leavers and school dropouts in various skills for self reliance. This is in line with Malawi Government policy of poverty alleviation. Comfort Dental Training Centre being a health institution where training of health workers at different levels of health delivery will be one of the approaches to make effective contribution to the Ministry of Health and Population overall policy. The overall policy of Ministry of Health and Population intends to raise the level of health delivery system by converge attention on the provision of cost effective package of essential curative, preventive health interventions and training that will effect the most significant improvements of the health status of the population.

Images


One of the Dental Technicians Trainee.