The genesis of Teethsavers International, Inc. was a mission trip to Belize in March 2000 sponsored by Westminster Presbyterian Church of Lubbock, Texas.

Dr. Jack Rudd, DDS, FAGD, founder of Teethsavers, developed an oral health program with the Minister of Health of Belize. Dr. Rudd made a promise to provide 26,000 toothbrushes, one for each student in the country of Belize, After appealing to the congregations in Palo Duro Presbytery to collect the toothbrushes, Rich Schempp, Executive Presbyter, received a call that Fed-Ex had 25,000 unclaimed toothbrushes that they were ready to ship to Belize along with the toothbrushes collected by the congregations. God is faithful!

In 2002, Dr. Rudd led a team that taught oral health care and treated patients in a large refugee camp in Zambia. By March 2003, Teethsavers had established the Zambia Six-Year Molar Focus School in the Chipata District. The school, a one-year course of study, prepares a new category of dental professionals to serve in the outlying villages where there are no dental health care personnel. The school and its graduates are approved by the Medical Council of Zambia.

In the Chipata District, 75,459 children in grades 1-4 have received oral hygiene instructions with a toothbrush and screening. Children who have cavities are treated using the Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) advocated by the World Health Organization. ART is a new technique of filling teeth without electricity or anesthetics. Seven hand instruments are used to remove decay, and then the cavity is filled with a material that chemically bonds to the tooth, virtually without pain, and provides some protection to other teeth with fluoride. The average cost of treating and training a child in oral hygiene is $1.40.

In Zambia, many of Teethsavers little patients had never heard of a toothbrush. Superstition and cultural customs make maintaining oral hygiene difficult. Training and treatment brought smiles, not fears, not tears, Zambians began to accept the services of Teethsavers International, Inc.

With the completion of teaching and treating in the Chipata District, the school moved to the Katete District in September, 2007 to begin a 3-year longitudinal basic oral health survey as requested by the World Health Organization (WHO) in an area with little or no oral health care. For his work in Zambia, Dr. Rudd received the 2007 Award of Distinction in the field of Continuing Dental Educationfrom the Academy of Dentistry International.

The mission of Teethsavers in Zambia is threefold:

(1) to train dental professionals

(2) to provide low cost, low tech dental treatment

(3) to provide ongoing training in dental hygiene

For generations, fear and ignorance have hindered the medical and dental care of these people and their children. This program, the first of its kind in the world, wants to bring hope and knowledge to these people and to God’s unseen, unheard and, too often, forgotten children.

More information is available on the Web site: www.teethsavers.org.

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