A SALISBURY dental nurse has been helping treat refugees in need of desperate care at camps in northern Greece.

Laura Westbrook, of Wilton Road, who works at DBS Larkhill, was part of a team of dental volunteers from charity Dentaid who went to the Cherso and Nea Kavala refugee camps.

In just two days, the team treated almost 100 people, many of whom had been suffering from terrible toothache for months.

“I am very grateful to Dentaid for giving me this incredible opportunity,” said Laura. “The refugees and volunteers we met over there are amazing, inspiring people and I didn't want to leave.

“We were able to offer advice, prescribe painkillers and carry out extractions. It was very hard work but I am glad we were able to see a lot of patients and provide urgent dental treatment to people in need.”

The Dentaid team worked alongside Health-Point Foundation and the Red Cross to provide emergency dental care in a make-shift clinic with temperatures reaching 40 degrees.

Dentaid is based in Landford and was set up 20 years ago to improve oral health around the world.

Although the charity has traditionally worked in Africa, Asia and Central America, Dentaid has recently launched schemes in the UK and projects to help people caught up in Europe’s refugee crisis.

The camps at Cherso and Nea Kavala are home to thousands of people who live in tents, rely on food handouts and have limited access to water, healthcare and basic sanitation.

Kerry Crook, UK and European projects manager for Dentaid, was also part of the Greece team, added: “The team was brilliant and worked together in difficult conditions to treat as many people as they could.

"They saw adults and children, many of whom had badly rotten teeth and had been living in awful pain. These people had left their homes in Syria and Iraq, walked well over a thousand miles to reach Turkey and travelled to Greece by boat – they had arrived with nothing.

"We know there are several other camps in the area where people need dental treatment and we’ll be sending more volunteers to Greece in the near future.”

For more information about Dentaid go to dentaid.org