A little-known charity which was set up seven years ago to improve oral health and dental care in the developing world has its home at Landford.

Luke Wordley, 26, and his wife, Dr Jenny Wordley, 27, run the UK side of Dentaid. Luke changed to charity work from being a partner in a diversified farming business in Essex.

In some ways it was a very good preparation for what I am doing now, Luke said. It was an enterprise of about the same size.

Jenny first became interested in dentistry in developing countries when she was a student. She had the option of working overseas and spent two months in Mexico, examining the teeth of children from the slums and teaching them about oral hygiene. After qualifying she worked as an NHS dentist in Essex, where she and Luke come from.

Most of the worlds population has no access to dental care, Jenny says. In Rwanda, for instance, there are just nine dentists for a population of seven million. Dentists have only very basic equipment and there is no sterilisation. Those who do have access to dentists, even poorly equipped ones, are lucky. In some parts of the world, someone with toothache will go to anyone to get rid of the troublesome tooth - including the blacksmith.

In January, Jenny spent time on a Mercy Ship, The Anastasis, anchored off the coast of Sierra Leone. People were sleeping outside, queuing for up to three days to see a dentist.

Many developing countries have a shortage of dentists but the problem is always made worse by the shortage of equipment. This is where Dentaid helps. It undertakes the refurbishment of donated UK equipment, turning it into fully functioning surgeries. Its initial efforts have been to try and bridge the gap between the great need for quality working equipment in the developing world and the tremendous waste of UK equipment discarded when dentists re-equip their surgeries. Donated dental equipment is fully refurbished to a very high standard. It is then packed in purpose made crates to ensure that it arrives in perfect condition. Special attention is paid to making sure the equipment provided is appropriate for the specific clinic to which it is then sent.

Luke has visited Zambia after Dentaid sent fully refurbished dental surgeries to the dental training school, where more than 30 trainee dentists had only two surgeries.

Once trained, dentists in developing countries often move to the cities because this is where the surgeries are, leaving people in rural areas significantly worse off.

Until now, dentistry has been ignored by charities but Jenny points out that although in the west people rarely die of tooth abscesses, in developing world they do. She says that there is a belief among people living in the west that African people have good teeth. They see a smiling face with beautiful white teeth, but the reality is often quite different. Working in Sierra Leone, she found horrific decay among the children whose teeth she examined.

It is the least developed country in the world, with a life expectancy of 45 years. There were all these children with tooth decay yet you see them sucking lollies. That is their luxury. But the result is people in their early 20s who have had ten extractions.

Jenny has more shocking stories to tell. In some parts of Africa it is thought that baby teeth are not teeth, but maggots that cause diarrhoea. The babies are taken to the village healer to have the teeth removed. They use whatever they have, the spoke from a bicycle, knives, finger nails, hot pokersK Because the adult teeth are under the baby teeth these are then damaged, but a lot of the babies get an infection and die.

So how did Dentaid get started? In 1995 a humanitarian organisation, Hope Now, was taking clothing to a prison in the Ukraine when its Governor pleaded for help with the lack of dental facilities. Many of his 500 prisoners had appalling dental problems but not being allowed out of prison, had no access to dental treatment. A room was available in the prison for a surgery and a local dentist was prepared to come in monthly to treat the worst cases.

Three months later a surgery was installed with equipment donated by an English dentist about to upgrade his practice. When the charity visited the prison six months later, the Governor excitedly showed the new surgery. The local dentist was working almost full-time and the cost of the prisoners treatment was being paid for by local councillors and business people who preferred to have their dental treatment done privately in the prison surgery because it was the best equipped in the region.

f Dentaid, which is based at The Old Sawmills, Giles Lane, Landford, is holding an open day on Saturday, June 7th, from 10am to 4pm. Visitors will be able to see the dental workshops and learn about the charitys work.