The Dental Emergency Team
The Dental Emergency Team is an NGO that has set itself the goal of establishing and operating a dental station in the refugee camp on the Greek island of Chios. Until now, dental care on the Greek island of Chios was only available for emergencies.
The VIAL refugee camp
The attention of the media is mainly focused on the island of Lesbos. Yet there are numerous other refugee camps. One of them is the Vial refugee camp on Chios. The people on Chios, however, almost disappear from the radar, although they live under the same undignified conditions.
Away from Lesbos, medical care on the Greek islands is usually only provided by small NGOs that are often in non-stop operation. Dentistry is completely underrepresented. On the island of Chios, people have so far only had access to dental treatment in the most extreme emergencies. After talking to representatives of the Basque NGO Salvamento Maritimo Humanitario (SMH) and the Greek people responsible for the VIAL camp in May, our decision was made very quickly: we wanted to set up dental care in the camp!
The camp on Chios from the air. It is located about 8 km, or 2.5 hours walk outside Chios town.
The Island of Chios
With a population of around 51,000, Chios is the fifth largest island in Greece. Due to its close proximity to Turkey – the town of Cesme is only seven kilometres away – refugees have been arriving here continuously since 2015.
The people are housed in an old aluminium factory about nine kilometres from the island’s capital Chios, far from any infrastructure.
The people live in containers and simple self-made dwellings around the former production hall where the camp administration, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the asylum authorities are located.
The Dental Station
In cooperation with the aid organisation SMH, the Dental Emergency Team has installed two treatment units for dental treatment in a container next to the infirmary. The station is equipped for all basic treatments. Most frequent treatments include fillings, extractions, root canal treatments and acute periodontitis treatments. But also the opening of large abscesses.
A treatment chair with operating light, a self-sufficient mobile dental unit and stand-alone suction are available. An X-ray unit is also part of the equipment, as well as everything else that a dental emergency practice needs. Of course, we also implement an appropriate hygiene concept with manual reprocessing and sterilisation.
