SHE may only just have returned from her latest volunteering mission with Bridge2Aid -but already Mitra’s thoughts are on her next expedition.
During her trip to Tanzania, Mitra carried out life-saving dentistry on people who have been suffering with toothache for many years.
And she and her team helped train medical officers to give them the skills to perform treatments such as extractions.
It is the second year in a row that Mitra has volunteered with the Bridge 2 Aid charity and she revealed it was just as life-changing.
“I was able to cope with the emotional nature of the work a little better this time because I was more prepared for what we would be doing and the wonderful people we would meet.
“The whole atmosphere when you are there is so calm and that makes you feel so calm. It makes you feel in tune with everything around you and you really appreciate the little things in life.
“The smiles on all the people’s faces are so contageous – they make you smile too. Being there is like cleansing your soul,” she said.
Mitra will be doing more fundraising for the charity – and she will volunteer her services once again in 2012.
“There is the possibility of helping out in other African countries and maybe even eastern Europe – they can count on the support of volunteers like me,” she said.
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CELEBRITY WAG Melanie Slade was among the glittering crowd who gathered at Scoozi restaurant in Southampton to support the fundraising evening in aid of dental charity, Bridge2Aid.
Melanie, who is one of Mitra’s clients at Stardent Dental Laser clinic, brought along an Arsenal shirt signed by her boyfriend striker Theo Walcott and his team mates to raise funds at the glittering event.
Mitra was delighted to raise £5,000 for Bridge2Aid, the charity she has given her wholehearted support to since travelling to Tanzania with them to offer much need dental expertise.
“It is a cause very close to my heart. Since going to Tanzania with the charity and seeing at first hand what a difference Bridge2Aid is making to people’s lives, I was determined to raise funds for them,” she said.
Friends and supporters enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Oxford Street restaurant and boosted the fundraising total by bidding for items in a charity auction.
“I am so grateful to everyone who came along on the night. I wanted to make it a fun occasion and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
“Their support will help Bridge2Aid continue their important work,” she said.
Having seen at first hand the desperate need for dental care in Tanzania following her life-changing visit to the country, Mitra is holding a fundraising event on October 10.
She was so moved by the plight of the people she met during her stint helping out as part of the Bridge2Aid mission, Mitra is hoping to raise thousands of pounds to boost the charity.
She is hosting a three-course dinner with fashion and entertainment at NV in the High Street, Southampton.
“I was so touched by my experience in Tanzania I want to do all I can to raise funds for Bridge2Aid.
“Their work is saving lives and I hope to go back to Tanzania myself to help with their on-going work,” explained Mitra.
The evening will start with a drinks reception, followed by dinner and entertainment. There will also be an auction and raffle.
The Mayor of Southampton Councillor Carol Cunio has confirmed she will be coming and other celbrities are lending their support to the event.
Tickets are £45 a head and can be bought by contacting Tina Hawke on 07802 711219 or emailing tina@anyeventuality.com
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WHEN award-winning dentist Mitra Najafi signed up to join a charity project offering dental care to some of the poorest people in the world, she had no idea quite how life-changing the expedition might be.
Just back from her trip to Tanzania working with the Bridge 2 Aid project, Mitra is still coming to terms with what she experienced - and she is already planning a return visit.
“It really was an incredible experience. The people we were treating had very little in material terms but they were so loving.
“Many were living with terrible pain because of infections in their mouths and we were forced to carry out extractions that must have been very painful to bear.
“But still they said thank you and gave us a beautiful smile when we had finished,” she said.
Mitra was one of a team of volunteer dentists and nurses who gave their time to help the poor villagers who might never normally get to see a dentist.
“We were an incredible group.We came from all different backgrounds and our ages ranged from nurses in their 20s up to a dentist who was in his seventies.
“We worked incredibly hard in really hot conditions - sometimes it was so humid it was hard to breathe.
“But we all had an amazing time - and we are planning to go back next year.” she said.
During the fortnight Mitra and the team spent in Tanzania they saw hundreds of patients and removed more than 1,000 teeth.
As well as carrying out treatments themselves, the team helped to train up eight new clinical officers who will now work in their own communities.
“In the beginning they didn’t know much about dentistry but by the end of the trip they were able to perform extractions that dentists in this country train for years to learn.
“It was an incredibly moving experience watching Kayanda, the student I trained, receive his final certificate,” she said.
If you would like to find out more about the Bridge to Aid charity or you would like to make a donation to help fund the critical work they do, go to www.bridge2aid.org
This is an extract from an email Mitra sent while she was in Tanzania and it beautifully illustrates the life-saving work that Bridge 2 Aid encourages.
“I had a 7 year old girl the other day who came with her school mates to see us with toothache.
“She was dirty but very pretty wearing a dress three size too big with lots of holes in it and no shoes. Her feet were cracked and very dirty. She had the most beautiful big black eyes I’ve ever seen but so full of sadness and pain.
“Her teacher told me she’d lost both her parents to Aids in the last 10 months and been bullied in school and beaten up badly a few times. She had suffered from toothache for six month. She wouldn’t even look at me when I was examining her as if she was scared of people - she wouldn’t even blink or move or say anything as if her entire body was numb.
“I tried so hard to communicate and connect with her. Holding her hands, cuddling her and trying to talk with the help of the CLINICAL officer that I’m training who also translates for me but there was nothing there. Her name was Laticia.
“We managed to get her to open her mouth so I could examine her. Laticia also had Aids herself and I could see signs of it in her mouth as I was examining her - I felt devastated!
We numbed her gently and my clinical officer asked if he could take the tooth out and I let him so I could sit in front of Laticia and hold her tiny little hands to comfort her as I thought she must be very nervous like any child would be.
“Still she refused to look at me. As my clinical officer started with the extraction, I saw tears running down from the corner of her beautiful big eyes on her cute angelic little face but she just sat there in silence the whole time and took it without moving.
“How could a child just sit there and take this? I looked in her eyes and they were filled with fear - that’s when I broke down in tears myself. There was too much sadness in those eyes. She probably knew she was going to die soon before she even got the chance to experience living.
“But I was determined to help her so I had to pull myself together quickly and just get on with it.
“I told my dental officer that I wanted to take the tooth out gently myself to make sure Laticia didn’t feel anything.
“The tooth came out quickly and as she was leaving she turned back finally looked at me and gave me a smile, while her gorgeous eyes were still full of tears.
“A picture of that smile is constantly in my head - and will stay there forever.”
]]>At her dental laser dental clinic in Southampton, she is used to treating the likes of sporting stars and WAGs such as Melanie Slade but in January she will be leaving for two weeks to offer her expertise at a Bridge2Aid ‘Tooth camp’ in Tanzania.
“I am going with my dental nurse/technician Bronte Foster and we are looking forward to the challenge.
“It is something I have always wanted to do - other dentists who have been say it is truly life changing,” she said.
To raise funds to take much needed basic dental equipment with her to donate to local dental workers,Mitra is holding a special beauty evening on November 26 from 6.30pm to 9.30pm at her practice in Inner Avenue.
Offers will include discounts of up to 50 per cent on botox, fillers and tooth whitening and there will be a prize draw too.
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She has built her practice up from scratch and has a loyal patient following who admire her for her professionalism and caring attitude.
And it is these two qualities that Mitra will be drawing on in the New Year when she fulfills a lifelong ambition.
“I’ve always wanted to do something meaningful - to give something back. I’ve been really lucky in my career and have enjoyed a high level of success.
“Now I want to share the expertise and experience that I have with people who sadly will never have the opportunity to receive the sort of dental care that we all take for granted in this country,”she said.
Mitra,along with her dental nurse/technician Bronte Foster has signed up to travel to Tanzania in Africa with the Bridge to Aid project.
She will draw on her savings to meet the £3,000 cost for the trip and Bronte is busy fundraising to collect the money she needs.
They will be going back to basics, staying in tents at a Tooth Camp and treating up to 50 patients a day.
“Children are dying in Tanzania due to dental infections and suffering terrible pain because they don’t have access to a dentist.
“The work that is being done at the Tooth Camp is saving lives and I would love to be part of that.
“This will be a return to the fundamentals of dentistry and I hope to be able to pass on valuable information for others to learn from,” she said.
Having built such a successful business in Southampton, Mitra was keen to take herself out of her comfort zone to face the challenge of working as a dentist in Tanzania.
“It is going to be totally different from anything I have experienced before.
“I see myself as a strong person but this will be a real test.
“It will be a life-changing experience – and I will probably want to go back each year,” she said.
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Mitra and Bronte will be donating dental equipment to the project, if you would like to sponsor them contact Stardent on 02380 633923>
Thousands of practices around the UK enter the prestigious awards each year so Mitra has done really well to get to the finals in four categories.
She is in with a chance of scooping awards for:
* Best Marketing
* Most Improved Practice
* Best Patient Care
* Dentist and Practice of the Year
Mitra and the team will be off to London for the glittering awards ceremony on November 6 - and they are counting the days until they know their fate.
“We were nominated last year for the top prize of Best Dental Practice and the Dentist of the Year- I would dearly love to win the title and I can’t wait for the day of the finals,” she said.
So fingers crossed - keep visiting the blog for further updates on this exciting story.
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“Since the age of 14 I’ve probably been to the dentist twice - and I’m 43 now. As a child I can remember running out of the dentists with purple dye all over my teeth because I wouldn’t let them carry on. ”I’ve always hated going to the dentist. When I was about 24 I had pain from a wisdom tooth and ended up going to a dentist. ”I can still remember sitting in the dentist chair shaking with fear - and then I just lost it and lashed out. ”I ended up walking out the door and putting up with the pain,” he said.
About a year ago Lee broke a tooth when he was out at a business function and once again he thought he could put up with the pain. But finally it got too much for him and he asked his partner Caroline to help him find a dentist who would understand his fears and take care of the growing number of problems in his mouth.
After doing some research she found the Stardent website. It was informative and she was impressed by Stardent’s awards in best patient care and made an appointment for Lee to see Mitra. ”It took me about 15 minutes to pluck up the courage to get out of the car -I was just a babbling wreck. ”Mitra and all the staff here were great, they realised how petrified I was and were really understanding,” he said.
Mitra explained that Lee’s case was one of the most challenging she had dealt with simply because his fear was so extreme and he was in a lot of pain on both sides of his mouth. It was hard to diagnose the source of the pain as most of his back teeth were in a bad state. ”I have worked with many patients who are scared of coming to the dentist but Lee was different. ”All I could do was look in his mouth - I couldn’t touch anything and it was difficult getting x-rays done,” she said. After an initial examination Mitra told Lee he needed root canal work, new fillings and some fillings needed replacing too. ”I told her there was no way I could do that - and that’s when she told me about sedation,” he said.
Sedation:
- reduces your anxiety
- minimises any discomfort during your dental treatment
- keeps you conscious at all times but you may fall asleep as you relax - For more info please read the sedation page on the website
- Here at Stardent we have our own Consultant Anaesthetist with more than 10 years specialist training in all forms of sedation and anaesthetic techniques.
- He will remain with you throughout while the dentist is doing the dental treatments.
“When I came back for the treatment I was in a bad way - I was shaking like a leaf. When they gave me the sedative injection, they had to wait half an hour before they did it because my heart rate was through the roof,” he said. Under sedation Mitra was able to work for three hours on one side of his mouth - and on a second occasion she completed the work.
“For me it was the only way, short of strapping me down in a chair, that anyone would be able to get near me to do anything in my mouth.I was very pleased about the fact that Mitra was able to complete all these different treatments herself in one session without the need to refer me to other dentists for different type of treatments.
From simple fillings to complicated root canal work and surgical extractions ,they were all done under sedation in one session,” he said.
Fear of the dentist
“I don’t know where my fear comes from, I just can’t stand the thought of having something metal in my mouth. ”It’s not a fear of pain as such - I used to play rugby and I’ve had stitches in my leg and face for example, with no anaesthetic at all, I’m not bothered with that type of thing. “It’s just teeth, I’ve got a problem with,” said Lee.
Mitra explained that people who are fearful of visiting the dentist often experience a ‘cycle of avoidance.’”They don’t go to the dentist until they are in real pain and that can mean they require invasive treatment that can inforce their fear of dentistry. “It’s a challenging situation,” she said.
What is sedation?
Sedation is very different from dental chair anesthesia or even “light general anesthesia”. The clinical provision of conscious sedation will allow you to walk into the dental practice having been able to eat and drink beforehand. You can have your treatment course with sedation and be able to walk out of the practice with simply another responsible adult to aid you.
“After my dental treatment was completed and the acute toothache was gone, Mitra offered me the chance to see her collegue Professor Gareth who could help me with my dental fear by hypnosis. “In the meantime she focused on a condition called Bruxism that I didn’t even know I was suffering from - Please see under TMJ on the website. “That meant that I was grinding my teeth badly especially at night and in stressful situations during the day.
“Everything Mitra said made sense I really was very tense all the time which caused a lot of jaw and muscular pain in my face. ”Mitra also made me an appliance called a Night Guard which I had to wear every night.It started lifting the pain and tension in my face .By this point I felt I could totaly trust Mitra and felt at so much ease at Stardent that I no longer had any problems with seeing her for my follow up checks. ”I was relaxed in the chair as she was examining my teeth and that felt great,” explained Lee.
Lee’s advice
“Having dental work done under sedation was the answer for me. It wasn’t cheap but I would recommend this to anyone who gets in as much of a state as I do about visiting the dentist. “Without this option I would still be climbing up the walls with pain,” he said.
Mitra’s advice
“Anyone who has had bad experiences in the past is bound to be anxious - and I do understand their apprehension. ”At Stardent we pride ourselves on helping people who have a real issue with coming to the dentist. ”We can take our time, build your confidence, address yoiur fears - and if needs be use sedation to carry out the necessary procedures,” she said.
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PRETTY Melanie Slade has learnt the power of a perfect smile after being thrust into the celebrity limelight.As the girlfriend of one of the most talked about footballers in the country, Melanie has built her own profile and can frequently be seen on the pages of the latest celebrity magazines.
“Theo is the luckiest person – he eats lots of suger but has never had a filling. He’s got lovely teeth”
Not just a pretty face, Melanie has brought a positive slant to being a WAG – she balances studying hard to become a physiotherapist, with the chance to do modelling assignments and rub shoulders with the likes of the Beckhams.
“I’m a real teeth-cleaning freak. I clean them about four times a day – and chew sugar-free gum“
Her world was turned upside down when her Arsenal striker boyfriend Theo Walcott was picked to play in the England squad – and since then she has dazzled with her perfect smile and stunning model looks.
“I’ve aways looked after my teeth and I’m so glad now that I am being photographed all the time.
“When I was younger I had a brace and I am so grateful that I had it fitted as it made my teeth look so much better,” she said.
Melanie, who comes from Southampton, returns to the city to have regular check-ups and treatments with Mitra Najafi at Stardent.
She has had laser teeth whitening and old fillings have been replaced with new white ones.
Mitra explained: “Melanie has lovely teeth and she is a great example of what can be achieved if you look after your teeth from an early age.
“The whitening helped to make her smile appear even more dramatic and white fillings make your mouth look so much better.”
Mitra is currently looking after Melanie’s wisdom teeth and ensuring they do not affect her smile.
“I come to see Mitra every six months and I think it is really important to have regular check-ups.
“My wisdom teeth are coming through and it is having an impact on my other teeth so she is keeping an eye on that for me,” she said.
“A smile is so important – having good teeth has helped me feel more confident”
Melanie’s Top Tips:
• See your dentist regularly
• Keep your teeth clean with regular brushing
• Learn to smile with confidence