The Canadian International Dental Foundation (CIDF) is a Registered Charity based in Canada and has been functioning for over ten years providing relief from suffering caused by poor dental health, poor hygiene and poor nutrition.

The Foundation has no paid employees and is run by a group energetic and committed professionals who give generously of their time and abilities. Our ongoing response is only made possible by the hard work of so many in the dental profession, dental industry and of course the general public.

The CIDF has traveled extensively to Haiti in delivering these services at standing and field clinics from the South at Bassine Bleue and Paillant, to the north and also the Central Plateau.

Over the years, the CIDF has provided smiles to countless people and created positive relationships in the process.

THE CHALLENGE

The need to find ways of delivering dental care in a country which has AIDS, drug-resistant TB, hepatitis, zika, chickungunya, and cholera, etc. is a daunting task.

• Above all do no harm
• Which one of us would take our child skipping happily by our side, all smiles with beads in their hair, to a dental office with the possibility of being infected with a life threatening disease.
• The use of high speed drills and ultrasonics in dentistry, with water droplet and aerosol spray is a shocking prospect for infection control
• The Cholera Epidemic alone infected more than 800,000 people, with 8,000 deaths.
• The need to find ways to deliver care safely is immediate and essential

WHAT CAN BE DONE

Without doubt, the place to impact the delivery of dental care is at the educational level.

• At this point of learning, students will carry knowledge and standards of care forward into practice life
• CIDF made a decision to work with the Dental School in Port au Prince

In  addition, CIDF decided to establish strategic partnerships with existing non-governmental organizations in Haiti with a proven track record of success.