Practice manager Gillian Fisher with patients waiting to be seen by the Dental Mavericks in Morocco

Dental practice manager Gillian Fisher from Withernsea in East Yorkshire travelled to the remote Rif Mountains region in Morocco in September to help treat 150 Moroccan children as part of the Dental Mavericks team.

Gillian travelled to Morocco with colleague Chris Branfield, principal at Castle Park Dental Care in Cottingham, and a group of seven dentists from throughout England. The group spent seven days at a remote school in a fishing village with 650 children, a high intake of honey and sweet mint tea, and no access to dental services.

This year the Mavericks treated 156 children and carried out restorations on 20.

Chris is the co-founder and trustee of the Dental Mavericks charity and helps organise the annual expedition to Morocco. Cally Gedge, another co-founder and trustee from Dental Mavericks, said: ‘This is our third year, and this Moroccan community now relies on UK dentists to rid them from the daily pain of decayed teeth’.

Gillian, who now plans to speak to local groups about her experience to help raise money for the Dental Mavericks charity, said that it was ‘truly the most overwhelming experience of my dental career and an expedition I will never forget’. She was particularly struck by the beautiful landscape, the friendliness of the people and the ‘awful’ levels of dental decay in the patients seen.

The Mavericks have a long team goal to fund a nurse who will visit the Moroccan school weekly and educate children on oral health, and also to bring in a dentist once a month from the nearest town, which is two and a half hours away. It will be called the El Jebah Teeth for Life programme.

For more information visit www.dentalmavericks.org or www.castleparkdental.co.uk/charity.html.