GCDF Consultants
The GCDF is very grateful for the partnership of several consultants. These are experienced individuals in the dental profession who are voluntarily giving their time and energy to work for us, supporting our projects in different ways.
Ellie Heidari - GCDF consultant for Special Care Dentistry
Ellie is currently working as a Senior Specialist Clinical Teacher in the Department of Sedation and Special Care Dentistry at King’s College London Dental Institute. After finishing her vocational training in a community dental service in Sweden, she moved to the UK to work in an NHS dental clinic. Her passions are to help her patients, in particular children and older people, who couldn’t access dental services for reasons such as poor general or oral health. This led her to specialise in Special Care Dentistry. Special Care Dentistry has been defined as ‘a branch of Dentistry, which provides preventive and treatment oral care services for people who are unable to accept routine dental care because of some physical, intellectual, medical, emotional, sensory, mental or social impairment, or a combination of these factors.’
Ellie is happy to give advice in Special Care Dentistry as a consultant for the Global Child Dental Fund.
She is always looking for innovative ways to improve oral health for this special group. For example she developed an interprofessional relationship network with various healthcare workers in a male prison setting, to target the most vulnerable prisoners. She is also very enthusiastic to work with all healthcare workers towards improved fair oral health care for everybody globally, regardless of their background or race.
Hyewon Lee - GCDF consultant for Strategic Health Communication
Hyewon Lee is currently working as a Dental Consultant, Public Health Officer in the United States Public Health Service, Health Resources and Services Administration Department.
In 2009, during her degree, the Windsor Street Health Center (Cambridge, Massachusetts) paediatric clinic may have closed for a while, if not for an extended period, given the tough economic situation along with a budget-cut at the site. As a dental student at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Hyewon Lee launched a student-led volunteer paediatric dental clinic to take over the running along with her fellow students under the supervision of paediatric faculty. Through this ACTION Project (Actions for Children and Teenagers In Oral health Need), student volunteers provide dental treatments and oral-hygiene education to under-served children on a monthly basis while being exposed to on-site experience in paediatric and public health dentistry at a community clinic. More than 75% of the Harvard dental school students currently participate in the ACTION Project every month to meet the need of the community.
Her passions are to increase access to oral health care and improve oral health of under-served children, families, and individuals with special needs. This brings with it another passion to raise awareness for oral health need in under-served areas through art and social media. With her passion for people with limited access to oral health care, Hyewon has worked for children and mothers with HIV at non-profit dental clinics and inmates in a local prison in Cambodia under the support of Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Global Children Dental Fund at King’s College, London, UK. Hyewon presented her work and experience at the Fourth Senior Dental Leaders Conference along with a photographic exhibition which raised awareness of the oral health needs among vulnerable children in Cambodia. Many of the pictures we have on the GCDF website are Hyewon’s.
Prue Preston - GCDF consultant for Tanzania
Prue currently works as a paediatric dental nurse for Harley Street Dental Clinic, London and is a trained dental ceramist.
Her passions are kids, surgery and the cultural differences in oral health education around the world. These passions have led her to working with various NGOs, such as Bridge2Aid over several years in Tanzania, lending her skills and knowledge to their dental volunteer programmes. Prue is a very active fundraiser for both GCDFund and Bridge2Aid. Over the last few years she has raised both funds and the profile of orphan homes in Tanzania. The children who have benefitted from the Smiles & Hopes Tanzania programme not only receive toothbrushes and curative care but a greater understanding of oral health education tailored for the culture of their nation.
Understanding the needs of orphans and their carers plays such a big part in what GCDF does and Prue has given us access and insight into orphan and street care in Tanzania that helps to provide better oral care for many who would otherwise have gone without. Prue looks enthusiastically at ways to help improve the oral health as well as other aspects of the children’s lives.
Dr Tony Jenner - GCDF consultant for Dental Public Health
Tony Jenner is self-employed and currently works as a consultant for the NHS.
As a young general dental practitioner Tony worked in an area of high unemployment and social need in Wales and this greatly influenced his future career in public health. When he had the opportunity of influencing health policy within the Department of Health in England, his hope was that the policy documents that he was able to publish would carry forward the principle of the need to prevent disease and to particularly help those less fortunate in society.
His passions in dentistry are improving oral health through prevention and dental public health measures, particularly in communities with the greatest social and financial difficulties. This has led Tony to work on behalf of GCDF in South Africa, helping them to work on dental health improvements for the most needy in society, as he has been seeking to do all his working life in the UK.
Tony has worked with us for many years because he believes GCDF embodies the principles that he has striven for in his dental public health career. He has been fortunate in his life and career and working alongside GCDF has helped him to repay society for what it has given him.
