Inspirational…There But For The Grace Of God Go I

“The Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth”

By Chris “Dr Smile Maker” Branfield

Inspirational…There But For The Grace Of God Go I

Hello again, I hope you are well and had a great Christmas. Happy New Year to you! Let’s see what it brings, eh.

Well, I went with my fellow Dental Mavericks Trustees to Thessaloniki in Greece. It was our first trip there and we teamed up with a charity called Health Point Foundation, who deliver health care in the refugee camps. An English Doctor from Bradford, set it up. What an inspirational woman. I don’t know where she finds the energy.

They have been doing health care over there and have found that there are urgent needs for dental treatment so is now focussing on that. That’s where we come in to try and help a bit. The idea of the trip was obviously to help people out of dental pain but also to build relationships and understand so that we can put a process together to then be able to send out teams of volunteers on a monthly basis, as we cannot keep going out ourselves.

There are now 20,000 refugees in Thessaloniki spread over 15 camps. 80% are families escaping for their lives. There also quite a lot of unaccompanied minors, who’s parents didn’t make it.


They Must Be Nithered

Now there’s a word I hadn’t used until I came to the East Riding. It was really cold in Greece. We were all wrapped up in layers but a lot of refugees had flip-flops and didn’t even have any socks!! Oh my word. We left our fleeces, sweatshirts hats and gloves. Temperatures got sub zero.


Dentist Open

This picture was at the poshest place we worked. Inside was a central sterilisation unit and some dental chairs. It was at base camp. Each day we worked somewhere different on a rotation around the camps. This was real field, outreach dentistry.

We saw people of all ages in pain. They were so appreciative. The thing is these people are just like you and I who had normal lives with families and jobs and thrust into living in these camps with no real sign of getting out. In spite of this and the cold they still stayed in good humour and we had some banter and smiles. Dental Mavericks love music so we have music on.

We have the occasional dance. What I love is when you get a connection, regardless of language. Getting that understanding that you will do your best to help as gently and respectfully as you can. That’s the buzz.

Hey The Macarena

One camp was run/organised by a Lady Professor, who was also a refugee. She loved what we were doing and would not let us leave until we had a dance. There was a real community vibe going on, which was lovely. Kids that had just had teeth out were dancing and smiling. It was also great for keeping warm. This is humans at their best. Inspiring stuff


Fed Up Of The Spare Bed?


I bet that sounded a bit random! It just popped into my head. I use lasers at work all the time. In February I’m off to Florida to train on using my lasers to do non-surgical shrinking of soft palates to help stop snoring and even help with problems like sleep apnoea. Can’t wait.

Wishing you all a fantastic 2017 and hope you make your dreams come true.


Until next time. Take care and be good. 


Chris



Chris Branfield is Principal Dentist at Castle Park Dental Care, Castle Villa, 28 Castle Road, Cottingham, telephone 01482 772550. He has been in dental practice for 24 years and has a special interest in life changing, pain free dentistry with dental implants, rapid teeth straightening and cosmetic dentistry. And, not only that Chris is founder member and trustee of Dental Mavericks charity- ending the daily dental pain of Moroccan kids. For more patient success stories and Chris’s charity work go here now www.castleparkdental.co.uk