Dental surgery helping most vulnerable during lockdown
A Black Country dental surgery is stepping up to help vulnerable people during the winter.
Walsall Wood Dentistry has set up a number of services to help homeless and isolated people across Walsall borough during lockdown and onwards into 2021.
This includes the offering of free dental work to homeless people, which principal dentist Mo Siddique said came from the surgery growing quiet during lockdown.
He said: “We had a practice meeting because things were getting quiet here, due to patients not turning up, which left a lot of gaps during the day time.
“Our practice manager Lucy Turner then suggested the idea of helping homeless people, so we have set up times in the day when we can give free treatment to emergency homeless patients.”
The treatments on offer include extractions, fillings and other emergency care and are available to patients unable to access NHS treatments due to not having a fixed address.
Ms Turner said the free dental work was part of a plan to give back to the community, alongside a collection area the practice had set up for local foodbanks and free hygiene packs.
Safety
She said: “We’ve wanted to get involved in the community and try and give something back to help local charities.
“We set up the collection area on Monday and we’ve had lots of patients, local supermarkets and people in general come in and make donations to the box.
“The hygiene packs will have a toothbrush, toothpaste, advice on how to brush your teeth, hand sanitiser and face masks and we’ve got around 100 to send out to the homeless.”
Dr Siddique said the donations made would go to the Lamp in Brownhills and other foodbanks around Walsall and spoke about the community aspect of helping people.
He said: “The homeless don’t always have a voice or the support and care that they need, so it’s nice to be able to offer that safety net and reassurance for them.
“We could looking at three or four months of this, so it’s only right to help.”
