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Dentistry experience in Tanzania

Our Tanzanian pre-dental work experience placements are based in the dental unit of the Government Regional Hospital in Iringa. You’ll work with the hospital’s Head Dentist and his team and have the chance to be on-call to observe emergency dental procedures that are referred from the Casualty Unit.

Tanzania has less than one dentist for every 100,000 people (compared to 40 in the UK and 59 in the USA), and awareness of the importance of oral hygiene is limited. The cases that do make it to the dental surgery, therefore, tend to be relatively serious and advanced. Extractions are very common (as a permanent solution to serious decay not requiring follow-up treatment), but you will also see temporary fillings, restorations are various other treatments.

The busy 365-bed Regional Hospital provides both primary care and referral services for a large area of southern Tanzania, and also hosts our medical and nursing placements. As a pre-dental student, you will have dedicated clinical teaching sessions within the department, but you are also free to join the more general lectures given by our medical and nursing mentors in the afternoons. The cover general clinical skills, malaria, TB, traditional medical practices, HIV public education and a range of other topics.