In the Community

Importance of Community Investment and Development

At Westcoast International Dental Clinic Vietnam, we believe deeply in the importance of community investment and development. While dental care is often overlooked in development assistance programs, we recognize the often severe health related consequences caused by poor access to preventive dental heath care, including the relationship between dental care and treatment of other serious health problems (heart disease, cancer etc). Our team is uniquely positioned to make a positive, life changing impact on many lives of others less fortunate. Last year, Westcoast provided dental treatments to more than eight hundred orphaned children.

International Smiles Art Contest
Supporting May as the Kids Dental Health Month, Westcoast International holds an annual "International Smiles Art Contest" to help promote the importance of good oral health for children.

Receiving hundreds of colorful dental related pictures every year we believe in creating the awareness among children on such an important topic as dental care.

The contest is open for all the kids under 12 years old from all the international schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Journey for Smiles
Journey for Smiles is our non profit program whose mission is to provide free dental care to orphaned and underprivileged children in Vietnam. Founded by dentists coming to Vietnam, program enhances the lives of orphaned children by showing them there is hope in Vietnam.

Beginning in 2004, we saw the first dental volunteers come to Vietnam to help treat underprivileged children. Annually, the number under the program has grown to over 900 children treated in 2010.  Volunteer dentists wanting to work with the program for a minimum of a week, can contact us about the program.

University of British Columbia (UBC) Outreach Programs
During the present academic year, UBC dental and medical residents hailing from Canada and the USA, will be undertaking groundbreaking work in the management of “head and neck” cancer patients at the Cancer Centre in Ho Chi Minh City. The UBC residents will perform oral health assessments, emergency treatments and routine treatments required prior to head and neck cancer therapy. In addition, they will collaborate with colleagues at the University of Ho Chi Minh and the Cancer Centre to establish a pre-radiation and post-radiation program protocol.

UBC residents travel to Vietnam twice per year for the UBC dental mission to treat orphaned children with Westcoast. To date the program has supported 18 North American dentists to travel to Vietnam since the program’s inception in 2000.

AIESEC
AIESEC is the global youth network impacting the world through leadership development experiences. AIESEC has been facilitating youth leadership activities as well as international internships & volunteer experiences for over 65 years, developing a global learning environment across 126 countries & territories.

Westcoast contributes to the development of AIESEC Vietnam by employing interns from Canada, Russia, Japan, Romania, Slovakia and Kazakhstan through their global exchange program. For more information, visit AIESEC

Dental Education for Schools
Westcoast is glad to support schools in the initiative to provide a good dental health education and the latest advice of oral hygiene for children. Every year our dentists visit nearby schools and Westcoast often hosts school field trips for a short excursion at our clinic in which children become more familiar to the dental environment.

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