The quarterly of the University of Helsinki

Reetta Vairimaa

Back to spring issue 2004

Traditionally, students from poor countries have left in search of knowledge to the countries with a more advanced level of science than their home countries. Many have never returned and the home country has not been able to benefit from the fruits of their knowledge.

A pilot project financed by the World Health Organization WHO sends Finnish dentistry teachers to the students in Iran. The teachers spend two weeks each in Iran and teach their special field to Iranian dentists. Heikki Murtomaa, Professor of Dental Public Health at the University of Helsinki, co-ordinates the project, which will provide nine Iranian dentists with an education corresponding to that of a Finnish Specialist Degree in Dentistry. The three-year project will familiarise the trainees with, for instance, oral health care and preventive dental care. Later, they can spread what they have learned as teachers or in health administration.

"The initiative came from the Iranians. WHO recommended Finland as a model country in which the public health point of view in dental care is taken well into account. A few years back we trained several Iranian directors of dental schools at our institute and word must have got around," says Murtomaa.

Teaching began in early March. Murtomaa visited Tehran in August to teach and met the students chosen by the local Shahid Beheshti University and Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education. More than one hundred applicants applied to the programme. The dentists chosen, four women and five men, come from different parts of Iran. "The students seemed very excited and motivated about the new training, although achieving the goals seemed to worry them slightly," says Murtomaa.

Taking teeth out the only cure

Two years ago Murtomaa visited Tehran for the first time to plan the teaching programme together with the Iranians. They agreed on co-operation in which Finnish experts come to Tehran for two-week teaching periods to supplement teaching by local teachers. A few teachers from partner universities in oral public health outside Finland are also going to Iran. Help is needed in teaching methodological sciences, such as epidemiology and statistics, behavioural sciences, health care economics and preventive dentistry.

The first to go was Heikki Tala, docent in dental care administration at the University of Tampere. The first lecturers from the University of Helsinki are Lauri Tarkkonen, Professor of Statistics, and Miira Vehkalahti, docent in oral epidemiology, whose teaching period was after Christmas.

Although Iran has a public health centre system, it has not encompassed dental care. Dental care has been reparative rather than preventive. In many rural areas, the only cure for a toothache is taking the tooth out. This upholds people's belief that they are going to lose their teeth in any case. According to modern knowledge, this need not be the case.

"I think WHO chose Finland as a model country because we have good experience with systematic and preventive dental care of young people. We can apply research results and practical experience gained from the Finnish model in an environment that does not, as yet, have a functioning, prevention-oriented system," says Murtomaa.

On the Iranian side, choosing Finland may also have been prompted by the fact that Finland is a neutral country, as Iran wants nothing to do with the United States or its allies. The dispute about the nuclear weapons inspections has further strained the relationship, and Iran has even been predicted as the United States' next target. "Of course everybody has wondered how safe it is over there. However, it is good to work under WHO's umbrella. All the Finns I have asked have agreed to go, whereas one expert from Belfast wanted some time to think about it," says Murtomaa.