Dental Professionals
Dental Mission Trips & Volunteer Opportunities
Dental Mission Trips Around the World
International Medical Relief (IMR) offers dental mission trips for dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, dental students, pre-dental students, and other volunteers who want to help provide dental care in underserved communities around the world.
Dental care is an essential part of IMR’s international medical missions. Our dental teams work alongside local healthcare professionals and community partners to provide care for children and adults who may have limited access to routine dental services.
Depending on the destination, community needs, professional credentials, and available resources, dental volunteers may help provide examinations, treatment for dental pain and infection, extractions, preventive services, oral health education, and other appropriate dental care.
Every dental mission is different, but the goal remains the same: provide compassionate care today while helping patients and communities improve oral health for the future.
Who Can Volunteer on a Dental Mission?
IMR dental mission teams welcome volunteers with a wide range of dental backgrounds and experience.
Opportunities may be available for:
Dentists and Dental Specialists
Dental Hygienists
Dental Assistants
Dental Students
Pre-Dental Students
Retired Dental Professionals
Specific responsibilities depend on professional credentials, experience, supervision, host-country requirements, available equipment, and the needs of each clinic.
What Do Dentists Do on Dental Mission Trips?
Volunteer dentists are essential members of IMR’s international dental teams.
Depending on the mission and patient needs, dentists may perform oral examinations, evaluate dental pain and infection, perform extractions and other appropriate procedures, treat abscesses, identify conditions requiring referral, and provide preventive oral-health education.
Dental volunteers often encounter patients who have lived with untreated dental disease because routine dental services are difficult to access.
While relieving pain and treating urgent needs are important parts of the clinic, IMR dental missions also emphasize prevention and education. Helping patients understand oral hygiene and preventive care can extend the impact of a dental mission beyond the individual clinic visit.
Dental Hygiene Mission Trips
Dental hygienists bring valuable preventive-care and patient-education skills to international dental missions.
Depending on local requirements and the structure of the mission, dental hygienists may assist with oral-health assessments, preventive services, patient education, fluoride programs when appropriate, infection-control processes, and other aspects of dental clinic operations.
Education can be especially valuable in communities where patients have had limited access to preventive dental care.
Dental hygienists can help children and adults understand brushing, oral hygiene, nutrition, and other practices that can help reduce preventable dental disease.
Dental Mission Trips for Dental and Pre-Dental Students
International dental missions can provide dental and pre-dental students with valuable exposure to global oral health and the delivery of dental care in different healthcare environments.
Students have opportunities to learn from dentists, specialists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, local providers, and other members of the healthcare team.
Dental students participate according to their education, demonstrated skills, supervision, mission protocols, and applicable host-country requirements.
Pre-dental students can learn about patient communication, clinic operations, infection control, oral-health education, and the responsibilities of dental professionals while assisting the team in appropriate roles.
The greatest value of a dental mission is not simply gaining experience. It is learning how culture, geography, economics, education, nutrition, and access to care can influence oral health and overall health.
Where Can Dental Professionals Volunteer Abroad?
IMR conducts international medical and dental missions in communities throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions of the world.
Each destination provides a different experience. Patient populations, dental needs, clinic environments, available resources, and local healthcare systems vary from one community to another.
Dentists and other dental professionals can explore IMR’s upcoming medical missions to find destinations and dates that fit their availability and interests.
Why Volunteer on a Dental Mission with IMR?
Dental professionals have the ability to make an immediate difference for patients experiencing pain while also contributing to longer-term improvements in oral health.
An international dental mission provides an opportunity to use professional skills in a different environment, work alongside local and international healthcare professionals, learn from another culture, and serve patients who have invited IMR into their communities.
For some dental volunteers, an IMR mission is their first international service experience. Others return year after year, bring colleagues from their practices, mentor students, or make global dental service an ongoing part of their professional lives.
Volunteer opportunities for dental professionals on dental missions with IMR give dentists, hygienists, dental assistants, and dental students the ability to provide no-cost dental care to adults and children in underserved and vulnerable communities around the world.
To help further global dental relief, each IMR medical mission trip is also a dental mission trip. These trips of 4-14 days give dentists, hygienists, dental assistants, dental students, and nonmedical volunteers with no previous dental experience the opportunity to work together directly with patients. Our dental volunteers provide the care patients desperately need and make a positive impact on their health and on their lives.
Dental mission trip volunteers provide free dental services for patients, both children and adults, who have never had dental care or have had limited access to it. Globally, dental care is limited in developing nations. Providing this much-needed service improves the overall health of the communities IMR serves.
IMR offers dental volunteer opportunities approximately 150 times per year through dental missions to communities in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe in which volunteers can choose to serve. To give volunteers plenty of time to plan ahead, we schedule trips about a year in advance and post the schedule on our website. We rotate through the communities we visit, so a trip to Ecuador that might not be possible for a volunteer to participate with this year may be doable the next.
With Dental Volunteer Opportunities with IMR:
- We care for both pediatric and adult patients on every dental mission.
- We accept patients and volunteers of all faiths and backgrounds.
- Only 1.2% of your donation is earmarked for administrative and fundraising overhead, which means over 98% of your investment goes directly to the people, places, and programs in the country you select to serve in.
- We are active in more than 96 countries and operate more than 150 trips annually that run throughout the year.96
- Trips start as low as $750 for our four-day missions. We want to make it as easy as possible for volunteers to participate from both a time and a financial perspective.
- Accommodations vary from adventurous trekking expeditions to luxury villas on the beach. Choose your trip to match your personal level of comfort, whether it’s budget travel or a five-star, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
- IMR is featured within the American Dental Association’s database of volunteer organizations. We are the largest dental mission provider and serve the most countries of all those organizations featured.
- We return to each country in which we work at least once a year for follow-up care.
- We use innovations such as 3D printing to maximize the care we provide for each patient in the field. Learn more about 3D printing.
News from the Field
Dr. Nathan Pound shares his experience in the Bahamas
Dr. Manjari Served in Guatemala with Her Daughter
Dr. Don Yamaoka Describes His Experience with IMR
Pre-Dental Student Gains Experience in Nicaragua
Roles for Dentistry Volunteers
International Medical Relief is featured within the American Dental Association’s database of volunteer organizations. IMR is the largest dental mission provider and serves the most countries of all those organizations featured. We care for both pediatric and adult patients on every dental mission. IMR also provides global dental malpractice insurance for all of our volunteers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dental Mission Trips
Do I need to be a dentist to volunteer?
No. IMR dental teams may include dentists, dental specialists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, dental students, pre-dental students, retired dental professionals, and other volunteers. Responsibilities vary according to credentials, training, supervision, and mission requirements.
Can dental hygienists volunteer abroad?
Yes. Dental hygienists can be valuable members of international dental mission teams, particularly in preventive care, oral-health education, patient support, and other appropriate clinical roles.
Can dental students participate in dental mission trips?
Yes. Dental students may participate according to their education, demonstrated skills, supervision, IMR protocols, and applicable host-country requirements.
Can pre-dental students volunteer?
Yes. Pre-dental students can participate in appropriate support and educational roles and gain exposure to dentistry, global oral health, patient communication, and interdisciplinary healthcare.
What dental services are provided?
Services vary by mission and available resources. Depending on patient needs and local requirements, dental teams may provide examinations, treatment for dental pain and infection, extractions, preventive services, oral-health education, and referrals when additional care is required.
Do I need international dental experience?
Previous international volunteer experience is not necessarily required. IMR provides mission-specific information and volunteers serve as part of an interdisciplinary team.
Where does IMR offer dental mission trips?
Dental services are incorporated into IMR missions in communities around the world. Current destinations and dates can be found on IMR’s upcoming mission schedule.
Find Your Dental Mission
Your dental skills can relieve pain, improve health, educate patients, and make a meaningful contribution to communities around the world.
Explore upcoming dental mission trips and discover opportunities to volunteer abroad with International Medical Relief.
Resources for Volunteers on Dental Mission Trips
History of Dental Care and Dental Volunteer Opportunities Through IMR
Shauna King, IMR president and founder
I grew up in my father’s dental office. Once I got older, I spent my summers assisting chairside in the sterilization area. As a result, we well appreciate the value of a great dental clinic on our trips and strive to communicate the importance of good oral hygiene and dental care to our patients.
From the beginning, my goal for IMR was to provide three components in every clinic – medical, dental, and prevention/education. The dental care we provide focuses primarily on two key objectives: short-term and long-term dental health.
The first objective involves meeting the greatest needs of our patients – relieving oral pain and infection from untreated dental caries. We perform examinations, consultations, and extractions; we treat abscesses; and we refer patients with suspected oral cancers to local medical providers.
Second, and equally important, involves the long-term sustainability of good oral health and hygiene practices. We do this by providing cleanings, fluoride treatments, and oral hygiene instruction.
Our goal is far greater than simply to treat acute dental needs today; it is to save teeth in the future by providing oral hygiene education and toothbrushes to our patients, along with helping to educate local dental students whenever possible.
Sustainability is a key component of our dental care, and conducting community outreach to define the breakdown in dental health is important. We strive for our dental volunteers to educate patients on the root cause of disease in caries, including poor nutrition, access to refined sugars, hydrating with sugary soda drinks, lack of fluoride, and poor hygiene habits. Some rural communities we visit use soda drinks as a means of hydration or sugar treats to pacify children. These lead to early tooth decay that often becomes unrecoverable.
Working Internationally at the Local Level
For the most part, our patients have never seen a dentist; we often see patients at our clinics with dental care as their primary concern. Caries have pitted out their teeth and they need extractions.
We have also seen some fairly serious cases over the years where impacted teeth have affected a patient’s overall health and well-being. Once we saw a small boy in Kenya whose lower teeth were growing down rather than up causing them to break the skin underneath his chin.
Every case is different, but when the oral health is so severely compromised, often the only way to improve overall health is through removing the caries causing infection by removing the teeth.
Dental volunteers typically provide four days of treatment during a week-long clinic. Dentists see an average of 20-40 patients per day depending on the severity of the cases, the length of time needed with each patient, and the number of extractions per patient. If we have the opportunity to work in conjunction with a local dental school, we may be able to easily treat several hundred patients in just a few days.
We always seek out local international dentists on our trips. They travel with us to the remote villages and assist with our clinics, working alongside our dentists. Often there is mutual learning and sharing involved. Our dentists learn the local techniques for teeth brushing and tongue cleaning while they demonstrate advanced techniques to the local dentists.
Because IMR clinics return to the same villages year after year, our goal is to provide enough education about home care that we work ourselves out of a job in every community we work in. We have successfully been able to move out of certain village and into new ones.
Dental Volunteer Opportunities on Mission Trips with IMR
Volunteering on a dental mission trip with IMR can be a life-changing experience. Some dentists go with us right before they retire as a bucket-list accomplishment; others have gone on many trips with us. We have some volunteers that make an IMR trip an annual event and bring their office staff or family along for the experience – everyone who goes on an IMR trip has a valuable role to play whether he or she is a medical or dental professional or not. Nonmedical volunteers are critical to our clinic operations.
To volunteer as a dentist, one must have an active license. We also require malpractice insurance, and we have resources that can help with easily obtaining a short-term policy. Many retired dentists have volunteered with us by working with patients with their oral health and hygiene, providing fluoride treatments, and helping practicing dentists, and an active license is not required. We have no requirements for maximum or minimum number of dental volunteers per trip – even one dentist of hygienist on a trip can make a big difference in the lives of our patients.
In addition to providing the overall trip cost, which varies depending on the destination, volunteers need a passport (sometimes a visa), vaccinations based on the destination, and money for souvenirs. Dentists can bring their own instruments or rent a kit from us at a nominal fee that offsets the cost of the instruments.
For student volunteers, learning from a preceptor in the field and getting hands-on patient care and interaction is invaluable. These experiences set them apart on their resumes. They also receive beneficial letters of recommendation from their mentors. Often, our student volunteers stay in touch for years with their dental mentors.
Volunteers work hard in clinic, but each of our trips includes some kind of vacation component that the volunteers look forward to. Depending on the location, we will typically take a day or two to go on a safari, visit a beach resort, or experience a country’s history and culture. During some trips, our housing is in a resort hotel so every evening after clinic is like a mini vacation on its own. Even in the most rustic of locations, we find many ways for our volunteers to relax and have fun. Oftentimes, our volunteers will take the opportunity to extend their stay after clinic is over for an unforgettable international vacation.
For dental professionals who can’t go on a trip but would still like to support our mission, there are many ways to help out. For example, donations of dental supplies are incredibly valuable to us. Dental offices may also choose to sponsor a student who is fundraising to go on a trip, making his or her efforts just a bit easier. Or you may sponsor oral health and hygiene education for an entire village to help improve the community’s overall health.
Join Us in Making a Difference.
You can join an IMR medical mission team or donate today!
