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2011 News
Miracle Corners of the World, Henry Schein, partner with Oral Arts Dental Lab for Tanzanian Dental Technician Training
The partners understood that to properly use and maintain the new dental lab, training was necessary. It just so happened, Rita Acquafredda, Vice President and General Manager of Zahn Dental, was speaking to Matt Winstead, Vice President of Oral Arts, Inc., a customer of Henry Schein’s based in Huntsville, Alabama, and Matt mentioned that he was traveling to Tanzania. Rita told Matt about the MCW project in Tanzania, and the need to train the lab’s technicians. Eager to participate, Matt offered to train two of the lab’s technicians, Ricardo Sabas and Sospeter Kanaku, in Huntsville at Oral Arts.
Ricardo and Sospeter spent six weeks living in dormitories at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and training with the technicians at Oral Arts, learning to do everything from flexible partial design to making a crown using Myerson’s Duracetal Resin. They learned to do partial facings using indirect composites, model and die fabrication, denture set up technique, and alloy castings as well. They were there during the outbreak of devastating tornadoes in late April. The Oral Arts laboratory was without power for four days, and Ricardo, Sospeter, and Matt traveled to nearby neighborhoods to assist with the clean-up efforts.
Sospeter recounted, “It was amazing to see how the community came together to help each other during a crisis.”
The 200 employees at Oral Arts say that they gained as much from the experience of hosting the Tanzanian lab technicians as Ricardo and Sospeter did. As Oral Arts’ largest foray into corporate social responsibility, Matt Winstead explained, “It has been a true honor for Oral Arts to be involved in this project. We collectively feel as though our efforts have contributed to improving the state of dentistry in the country of Tanzania and the quality of treatment that patients receive. It was a great opportunity for us to give back to society in this way, and the experience helped our employees really appreciate the quality of techniques and treatment that we have available to patients in the United States.”
“We really appreciate everything that Oral Arts, Henry Schein, and MCW have done for us,” said Sospeter, “We learned everything we need to know about how to operate all of our new equipment, and now we will be able to return home to Tanzania and transfer this knowledge to our colleagues….truly bringing a new age of dentistry to Tanzania. This is an experience that we will never forget, and through this project, we will be able to make sure that many people in Tanzania have better lives.”
Ricardo and Sospeter help with tornado clean-up