Southland dentist Haneen Alayan, whose dream is to make "dentistry more accessible and more affordable for everyone in New Zealand" has won the 2020 International College of Dentists (ICD) Young Dentists Volunteer grant and will be travelling to Fiji to provide dental care to those in need and help mentor and train Fijian health professionals. 

The grant is awarded each year to an exceptional young dentist throughout the New Zealand and Australian Dental Associations to allow them to do volunteer dental work in countries with high levels of need, by covering the dentists travel and living expenses. 

Miss Alayan said she was incredibly humbled to be chosen and "wasn't expecting it at all".

She has elected to go to Fiji to help with the 'Smiles for the Pacific' programme led by Kiwi dentist Dr Jonathan Cole. This initiative trains, upskills and mentors Fijian health professionals via efforts of volunteer dental professionals from New Zealand and Australia. 

Miss Alayan said she always knew she wanted to work in the health profession but it wasn't until a lecture on dental epidemiology, during her first year of university studying Health Science, that she became fascinated with the dental profession.

"[Dentistry] is kind of like an artsy medical profession, you still get to help people's health but also get to use your hands a lot... I applied for dentistry for the next year [of university] and I loved it. I love the profession more every day."

Born in the United States, of Palestinian descent, raised in Christchurch, and then educated in Dunedin at the University of Otago Dental School, Miss Alayan has already seen many parts of the world, but she said working and living in the small town of Gore had been one her favourite places to be. 

"I love it here," she said referencing the Southern charm of Southland people. 

"Obviously, Gore is quite a lot smaller than Christchurch, but I think it suits my personality a lot. I don't like traffic and we don't have any traffic lights which is great," she joked.

"I have the most the wonderful employers but I'm getting married soon – my fiance and family are in Christchurch so probably I will have to move."

Haneen Alayan

Miss Alayan's first job after graduating from the University of Otago Dental School was in Hamilton, where she worked in a mobile dental caravan at a secondary school.

She later moved south to work at Birch Lane Dental in Gore and teach part-time as a clinical tutor the Otago University Dental School.

Mis Alayan is extremely community-minded and is passionate about providing quality medical care to all those who need it. 

"My main goal is trying to make dentistry more accessible and more affordable for everyone in New Zealand," she said.

"I think a lot of dentists would really like to see the government step in and subsidise dentistry for more people as it's definitely needed."

She said health care should be a right and not a privilege.

But she said, unfortunately, there were high need groups in New Zealand such as refugees, Maori and Pasifika, to name just a few, that were underrepresented and required urgent help affording treatment.

"We probably need more representation [in the medical field] from those groups," she said, as being able to properly communicate with your patient was important to ensuring they received the best care. 

Miss Alayan has participated in the NZDA Free Dental Days programme and also been awarded three grants and is "hoping for a fourth" to provide free comprehensive dental care to low-income patients in the Southland region. 

"With the first grant, we treated a total of 21 patients. The total value of the treatments was $50,000 and with the second grant we treated 19 patients (with $50,000 total value also)."

She said often when people were struggling financially, they often put off coming to the dentist because they were afraid they could not afford it.

"You have people come to you in extreme pain, and then you watch their face fall when you explain how much it costs," she said. 

"We tried to pick people [to receive funded care] who had quite a lot of problems so we could fix them all at once to give them a fresh start. And it worked."

"I follow up with the patients and they're [doing] a lot better."

She said the usual criteria was for patients to receive funded treatment for these grants was that they had a community services card.

In 2019, she was also awarded the Wrigley’s NZDA Principles in Action Grant which allowed her, alongside dental student Jamie Marra, to launch the ‘Sunday Clinic’ in Dunedin.