From remote Pacific islands to rural African communities and long-term care homes in Latin America, the projects supported by FDI’s World Dental Development Fund (WDDF) share a common goal: reaching people too often left beyond the limits of traditional healthcare systems.

Whether through mobile outreach clinics, school-based prevention programmes or portable care for elderly residents, these initiatives show how community-driven oral health projects can transform lives when care is designed around the realities of the people who need it most.

The geography of access

Many healthcare systems still rely on a simple assumption: patients will come to the clinic. But what happens when the clinic is an ocean away?

In the Cook Islands, only 14 dental therapists support the country’s entire school oral health system across widely dispersed islands. Travel itself often becomes a barrier to care.

The project Healthy Islands 2030+: Towards a Cavity-Free Future for the Tamariki focused not on building infrastructure, but on strengthening the workforce already sustaining the system.

Training combined clinical education with role-playing, case simulations and community outreach. Therapists practiced culturally adapted communication, explored the social determinants shaping oral health, and delivered the “Baby Teeth Matters” programme to children, mothers and caregivers.

The project recognized that oral healthcare in small island communities depends on trust, continuity, and local ownership. By the programme’s end, therapists reported greater confidence in both treatment planning and leading community oral health initiatives.

The first toothbrush

More than 10,000 children across Rwanda’s Bugesera District participated in a year-long oral health outreach programme, many encountering organized oral healthcare for the first time.

More than 1,600 children received screenings, while every participant received a toothbrush, toothpaste, and oral hygiene education. The programme focused not only on treatment, but on long-term behavioural change, teaching children proper brushing techniques, the importance of fluoride toothpaste, and reducing sugary snacks.

Communities soon began requesting regular visits, additional supplies, and school-based oral health clubs.

The initiative was led in part by 46 dental students from the University of Rwanda alongside lecturers and alumni volunteers, making the programme both a public health intervention and a training opportunity for the country’s future oral health workforce.

The project also reached vulnerable young children and caregivers, including families of teenage mothers.

In communities where oral healthcare has long been absent, even small interventions can reshape expectations. A toothbrush becomes more than a hygiene tool; it becomes an introduction to prevention, dignity, and self-care.

Dentistry without walls

In Uganda’s Greater Masaka Region, oral healthcare did not stay inside clinics. It moved. Dental teams travelled across districts, schools and healthcare centres delivering fluoride treatments, surgeries, restorations and screenings to nearly 4,000 people ranging from toddlers to nonagenarians.

The scale of untreated need quickly became clear. Hundreds of patients required referrals for advanced care. Long queues formed, and many conditions, including complex periodontal disease and advanced restorative needs, could not be fully addressed during short-term outreach camps.

Yet the project also demonstrated the power of community mobilization. Volunteer dentists worked alongside students, universities, village health teams, and regional media outlets. Oral health campaigns aired on radio and television in local languages, while dental students created TikTok videos to expand awareness beyond traditional public health messaging.

This combination of outreach and digital creativity reflected a changing reality: prevention increasingly depends not only on healthcare workers, but also on storytelling, peer influence and visibility.

The forgotten patients

Nowhere was invisibility more evident than in Chile’s long-term care facilities.

Among elderly residents assessed during the project, 42% had untreated cavities; nearly one-third were completely toothless, and more than half suffered from dry mouth linked to multiple medications. Many struggled to chew properly, forcing them onto soft or pureed diets.

Caregivers described residents living with pain, infection and declining quality of life. Most caregivers had never received formal oral healthcare training. Yet they were eager to learn.

The project brought dentistry directly into care homes using portable equipment and mobile treatment models supervised by geriatric dental specialists. Across 11 facilities, dentists delivered hundreds of treatments while training caregivers in oral hygiene support, emergency management and daily care routines.

What emerged was more than a clinical programme. It became a broader reflection on ageing, dignity, and healthcare priorities. Too often, oral health in elderly populations is treated as secondary rather than essential. Yet the project highlighted the deep connections between oral health, nutrition, communication, and quality of life.

Importantly, it also showed that solutions do not always require major infrastructure investments. Sometimes they begin with mobility, flexibility, and a willingness to meet people where they are.

Carrying care into the community

In Fiji’s Serua-Namosi region, oral healthcare arrived through a temporary village health centre built almost entirely from portable equipment.

For one week, the Serua Namosi Community Oral Health Outreach Project brought together more than 50 volunteers, including dentists, nurses, surgeons, students and community health workers, to provide integrated healthcare services to around 1,040 people.

Dental teams delivered examinations, extractions, restorations, scaling procedures and referrals for more complex conditions, while health education sessions focused on oral hygiene, diabetes prevention, and lifestyle-related disease.

The outreach reflected a model built on mobility, collaboration, and community trust. Equipment failures, power interruptions and transportation challenges highlighted the realities of delivering healthcare in resource-limited settings, yet the clinics continued to operate.

Most importantly, the project demonstrated how oral healthcare can serve as an entry point into broader community well-being by integrating dental treatment with medical screening, preventive education, and referral pathways.

A shared lesson across continents

These projects took place in very different healthcare settings, yet together they reflect a growing shift in global oral healthcare: bringing care directly to underserved communities rather than expecting communities to navigate inaccessible systems. That means training frontline workers across remote islands, setting up treatment camps in rural schools, bringing portable care into nursing homes, and building trust through education and community outreach.

Above all, these projects show that oral healthcare is not separate from overall well-being. It is connected to nutrition, childhood development, ageing, confidence, and quality of life.

The stories emerging from the Cook Islands, Rwanda, Uganda, Chile and Fiji are not simply about dentistry. They are about what healthcare looks like when nobody is considered too remote or forgotten to matter.

It could be your turn – apply for the World Dental Development Fund

These five projects demonstrate that meaningful change does not always begin with large-scale infrastructure or vast resources. Sometimes it begins with a small team, a portable dental chair, a school visit, or a single outreach programme.

Across all five initiatives, one thing became clear: communities everywhere are ready to engage when oral healthcare is brought closer to their realities.

The next transformative project could begin anywhere. In a rural district. An island community. A care home. A school.

For organizations and oral health leaders with ideas that could improve access, prevention and equity in oral healthcare, the invitation is simple:

Start the conversation. Apply for the World Dental Development Fund. 

The next story could be yours.

Apply now

The World Dental Development Fund is supported by Shofu.