Testimonials

It's hard to know whose 'gap' is most filled in this program. As an experience in learning about indigenous culture and indigenous compassion and enthusiasm I would recommend all dentists take up this wonderful opportunity. With a long life in a dental career it is also good to just do what we are trained to do. Dentistry without practice management is actually quite a joy. The Filling the gap program allows dentists to come and work for a week or two at a modern well equipped surgery with well trained and friendly staff. Housing and a car are provided so at the end of a day the foreshore at Cairns beacons with great restaurants and beautiful sunsets. It is amazing that working in this environment is actually a holiday.

My husband and I are both dentists and we are at the stage of being "child free". Not financially (does that ever happen!) - but we don't need to be at home to feed or supervise our children so we considered going to a third world country for both the experience and to 'give back' to society in general. The filling the gap program offered an easier Australian version and we have linked a few days of R&R around the dental work. I was most hesitant working with new staff as my nurse has been working with me for 21 years and she reads my mind. The staff at "Filling the gap" help make the experience special. We don't get to meet or hear the stories of indigenous life in middle class Glen Waverley in Victoria. W is a remarkable venture that I would commend to any dentist who either wants to do something for others or would just like an excuse for a break to revitalize their practice.

"I went with an open mind to enter into their world and not to impose my beliefs and my world onto them....I saw a lot through those kind of eyes! Marion is so efficient and has the place working...well almost hopping. The girls were immaculate and proficient. There was so much kindness towards the patients and every courtesy was extended. The hygiene standard and the procedures were followed to a tee and Marion was there to supervise whenever needed but yet allowing the girls autonomy.

A beautiful young girl named Siobahn was ready to apply to dental school and Marion was so much behind her. There is scope for them to move forwards and every suggestion that I uttered was met with interest and sincerity.

The patients were kind and respectful...some of the cases were trully heart breaking especially the young ones who got into petrol sniffing.

I have surmised that addiction is trully just a slow death process and so many suffer from one addiction or another. I have also surmised that our world has had time to assimilate hardships such as wars, the industrial revolution and the common working place. We have had generations to prepare our young to cope with the modern world. The community up in Cairns have not had such a luxury or such an opportunity. Their young are not given the approval and the self respect that the young so much need in order to propel and manoeuvre in the modern world.

Siobahn answered the question so beautifully for me when I asked her. "Why is it that you take care of your health and take care of yourself....why is it that you are planning to go to university and you want a better life for yourself?"

She simply answered "because I believe that I can do it, I feel confident in myself"!

I think what you are doing is so amazing that we can serve their community in such a way. To just approve of them and to allow them to have their evolution also."

"As a fourth year dental student, the opportunity to work at the Wuchopperen Health Service was the experience of a lifetime. The facilities are first class and allowed my fellow students and I to undertake some really fulfilling work. The patients are so grateful and the clinic staff ensured we had a great time. If you have ever wanted to do something that will truly help make a difference I would recommend Wuchopperen to you."

"I am back from Wuchopperen and wanted to email you to thank you for your part in the arrangements and to acknowlege the great work of the staff and particularly that 'dynamo' Marion!- I want to go out fishing with her next time!

Very positive experience for me and I hope for my patients!

While having FT dentists is the ideal I am encouraging work colleagues at my place of work where we have 40 plus FT and PT clinicians.

Once again my appreciation to you again. I will be back!"

"Thank you for putting together such a good program, I do think it's very worthwhile. In general, I don't know who got more out of it, me or the patients! I have been keen to do some volunteer work for a while and I've also been keen to get to know more about the indigenous community, but the opportunity never arose and there never seems to be time to do these things. It felt good to be able to help and it was great meeting not just the patients but also the staff who told me so much about the communities they come from.

The girls are really to be congratulated for their ability to get used to working with a different dentist each week. It is not an easy thing to do and they do it so well and so cheerfully, they are all a delight to work with. I found the surgeries to be well equipped and well maintained. It was wonderful to have the experience, I just wish I could have done more."

"I have wanted to do some volunteer work in dentistry for some time, and there are programs in Nepal and Vietnam and Cambodia – but it’s for a longer period of time – and it’s hard to take time off from my practice. I found it was quite easy to take a week off to do this and I really enjoyed the interaction with the patients, and the challenges of trying to motivate them to help prevent dental problems. I’m planning to go back in October.

A great way to combine time out from your busy private practice with worthwhile community dentistry."

"My time at Wuchopperen was very enjoyable and very rewarding. The staff were great, the patients appreciative and Cairns in the middle of winter is a nice location."

"In Sydney we live in a very affluent community and you think things are OK in the rest of Australia, but you don’t realise, when you go to places like this, the people’s health is third-world standard.

The first man that came in couldn’t go for a job interview because he had all these rotting front teeth. If he goes through the public health system, he’s put in a queue again to have the teeth pulled out and then another queue to have tooth replacement – so it’s really bad.

In Balmain, the worst scenario would be that someone is on anti-depressants – but the medical history there is just amazing – everyone has rheumatic fever – there would be at least two or three in one day with diabetes or high-blood pressure or something else.

I’m so glad I did it. I would like to go again and make it a yearly thing. Even though each day was a really full day’s work – I worked through my lunch hour as well to see the maximum number of patients – it was very refreshing."

"There’s a lot of emergency work. People have been in pain for weeks, tolerating pain that no-one in Sydney would.

There are very neglected mouths, which are compromised by certain diseases. There’s a high incidence of type 2 diabetes and rheumatic heart disease.

Wuchopperen has an extremely high standard of infection control, the staff are extremely well trained and there is a very good practice manager."

"I had a wonderful experience at Wuchopperen. The facilities were excellent, the staff very welcoming and the patients appreciative. I really felt like I was making a difference to the Aboriginal community and would encourage anyone who is thinking about volunteering to contact Filling the Gap."

"The effect, over time, of dentists providing service to Indigenous communities will be profound! Can you imagine, people being able to go to the dentist for preventative treatment, instead of only for emergency extractions? Can you imagine a child having the chance of not getting an early onset chronic disease because they are able to maintain good oral health and eat a normal, healthy diet? I can’t think of many communities that have access to this type of consistent oral health care. The dentists that give their time are to be truly commended. Their efforts should be an inspiration to us all!"

"It has been a pleasure to have the volunteer dentists at Wuchopperen Health Service. They all have been very enthusiastic, hard working and very supportive to the staff. Patients are disappointed that the volunteer dentists cannot stay longer as they have felt very comfortable in their care."

"I liked best the acceptance and welcome by all people at Wuchopperen. Also the feeling that even my efforts helped a little. Most memorable was the whole set up at Wuchopperen and the enthusiasm of the people working there. Recommend doing 'a bit' for others without renumeration."

"I initially found out about Wuchopperen Dental Clinic via the Dental Job Search Website. I was immediately attracted to the idea of volunteer work and the idea of working with the indigenous community appealed to me also. My first point of contact was via email and I found out a little more about the service from the website. Shortly after, I was contacted to organise travel and accommodation arrangements. I was at this stage expecting to be staying in caravan park style accommodation and perhaps working out of a mobile dental clinic. How wrong I was...

Upon arrival in Cairns, I was transferred to the hotel by Rob, the very friendly and helpful hotel manager. He was something of a colourful character and I immediately felt welcome. My accommodation was lovely. It was a one bedroom self contained flat and in this flat I had everything I could possibly need including laundry facilities. I have to admit, I was very impressed by the standard of accommodation organized for me. I was also given a set of car keys to a brand new Camry and a petrol charge card which I had use of during my stay.

The clinic itself far exceeded anything I could have possibly imagined. The technology and equipment available for dentists were up to date and quite new. The staff were both highly trained and very approachable. I worked most closely with Eleanor who was relatively new to the practice however she knew everything about the practice and was AMAZING with the patients. She was such a beautiful person to work with and I could tell that patients also found her very comforting. This is true for all the staff at the clinic, not only the dental clinic but the entire facility. One of the things I loved most about the clinic was that I could see that the girls who set up and managed the dental clinic put a lot of personal effort and time into the facility. Jean, one of the senior staff members, had several absolutely gorgeous hand painted pictures, one of which I fell in love with the minute I saw it. Marion, the practice manager, keeps the practice running efficiently and effectively. Everyone contributes their bit; whether it be big or small, it is always done with love.

I strongly recommend that anyone interested in volunteering at Wuchopperen should do it! The opportunity to help others and the satisfaction of knowing you have given something which to you may seem so small and insignificant but to the patients and staff at Wuchopperen is a significant contribution is reward enough. I enjoyed my stay in Cairns and my stint at Wuchopperen and will definitely be putting my hand up for volunteer work again!"

"I first heard about the critical need for dentists in Wuchopperen when I attended a dental meeting in Melbourne in October 2005. At the end of the meeting an announcement was made that an Aboriginal community in Far North Queensland urgently needed dentists on a voluntary basis. The government had established a new health centre, together with a dental clinic that unfortunately wasn’t fully functioning because it had been impossible to recruit enough dentists to go to Wuchopperen and perform the work.

I decided to contact the recruiting officer for Filling the Gap, Uri Windt, and after speaking to him I chose to donate two weeks of my time after Easter in April 2006. Even a two-week period makes a significant difference to the numerous patients needing dental work in Wuchopperen who have been on waiting lists for months and months.

I had no idea what to expect or even where Wuchopperen was exactly, but I was sure it would be a great experience. The clinic is located in a suburb of Cairns and provides both medical and dental services to a majority Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander patients. I was really impressed to see how well equipped the clinic was - they had the latest technology and equipment and the staff were highly qualified and competent. My mother joined me on the trip and we were given simple but adequate accommodation and I was really pleased to be given a car for our use while we were there. This enabled us to explore the area when I wasn’t working.

It was a real pleasure to work with the staff at Wuchopperen, they were actually one of the most highly skilled and professional team I’ve worked with. The office manager, Marion, was a major asset to the clinic and it was really interesting to get to know more about the members of the team. For example one of the dental assistants, Jean, is a very accomplished Aboriginal artist and her paintings have been commissioned by the Centre.

While I was at Wuchopperen I treated 66 patients over 8 working days, and several of the patients were treated more than once. As I expected there was a heavy workload and we were very busy but it was manageable, and I wanted to do as much as I could while I was there. I told the reception that I preferred longer appointments (thirty minutes to one hour) so that I could have in-depth consultations with patients and perform longer, more complicated procedures when necessary.

The type of treatments I performed ranged from hygiene and oral health advice to oral surgery. Because I enjoy surgery I was given a backlog of impacted wisdom teeth that needed removal as well as various other surgical procedures. I was happy to do this as patients had been on long waiting lists to see the local oral surgeons and some of them were experiencing pain.

I removed 46 teeth in all and some of these were performed as part of surgical procedures - I now have tennis elbow in the right arm to prove it (some of those young men had very well developed alveolar bone!). I performed over 30 fillings, took 24 X-rays and even performed 10 endodontic procedures. I don’t normally do endodontics and I tried to offload them to someone else but in the end I decided it was important to be flexible!

I even did some denture work but it was hard without a laboratory technician. The previous technician apparently left because there was no dentist – a bit of a catch 22.

I loved meeting with the local patients. Most of them had been treated by a new dentist each time they went to the Centre so they were never sure what to expect. I felt like each patient was quietly observing and assessing me which was fine, all of them seemed to become comfortable and relaxed. I felt really accepted when all the staff asked me to perform their dental work while I was there. I built up a rapport and a relationship with a few patients who I saw a couple of times while I was there, but most of the appointments were given on the basis of their urgency. I performed procedures on late teens and elderly at a ratio of 3:4, male: female.

While I was there, there was torrential rain every single day – the area was badly affected by Cyclone Monica. The flooding was on the news and when I looked out the door I could see the creeks over-flowing. One day the office manager couldn’t get to work because the flooding was so bad and my mum ended up coming to the rescue (despite the fact that she is 78 years old and computer illiterate!). She came to the clinic and took over the phones and single-handedly ran the reception desk. She even got down onto the floor to draw with the kids waiting for their parents while they had a treatment.

Everyone, including myself, was quite emotional when it came time for me to leave and I promised the clinic staff I will come back to visit them again. I’d love to go out on a mission to work with their mobile dental clinics next time – I could even do some fishing after work!

I knew that working in Wuchopperen would be a great experience but I totally underestimated what an eye-opener it would be. Just a small amount of time made a real difference to the patients I saw. I’m already looking forward to going back."