Dental volunteering

Volunteering in the context of providing dental care is dental volunteering. Volunteering in international healthcare facilities is gaining popularity. Volunteer efforts in dentistry are widespread in the underdeveloped world. The World Dental Federation (Federation Dentaire Internationale, FDI) has defined the term Dental Volunteer as "A qualified and registered/licensed dentist who provides time and work free of charge".^[26] Typical dental volunteering workforce includes, Dentist/ Dental Surgeons, Dental Specialists, Dental Hygienists, Dental and Hygienist students.^[27][28][29] The factors that encourage the desire to involve in voluntary care include a desire to give back to the community, a desire to be more understanding of patients' needs, and a desire to feel fulfilled in their work. Volunteers' have expressed reasons for giving their time and energy range from altruism and the desire to 'help others' to spiritual and career advancement. It's clear that not all dental professionals feel the same way about giving back to the community.^[30]

Dental Volunteering has a potential of making a substantial contribution for the global oral health. Significant opportunity for fresh experiences are afforded to individuals in volunteer work. They enable participants to respect various cultures and ways of life while making a constructive contribution to the target community, whether that group is domestic or international. Dental Volunteers play a crucial role in providing dental treatment to patients at community health centers. Considering that paid medical staff availability and willingness to serve cannot be assured, sustained reliance on volunteers presents significant difficulties. In some states of the United States have implemented a mechanism for volunteering in exchange for continuing education credits. It has been help underprivileged communities, however the reports have indicated that it hasn’t fixed the problem of limited access to care. Earning continuing education credits for volunteering is generally viewed as a positive development.^[31]

However, the typical approach in dental volunteering in developing countries are often criticized. Volunteer non-profit organizations (NGO) in the dental field have made significant strides toward eliminating worldwide disparities in oral health. However, the dental NGO sector is much less well understood than the medical and health NGO sector. The FDI, published a seminal study in 2002 analyzing baseline data about dental aid organizations.^[32] Most of the dental NGOs are small in size, run on a shoestring budget, employ only a handful of people (most of whom are volunteers), lack professional management, provide inconsistent quality assurance, are unaware of relevant research, and have poor lines of communication and collaboration with one another. Concerns have been raised that certain volunteer programs may actually do more harm than good to the communities they aim to assist. It's reported that sometimes locals in host areas have a mixed reaction to volunteers. As a result of insufficient understanding, some projects have the potential to cause harm by being paternalistic, diminishing confidence in local health systems, failing to maintain patient safety, causing economic harm to local providers, and focusing more on volunteers than local communities. As a result, there is a call for further education of the concept among volunteer dental practitioners.^[33]