The importance of, and the benefits derived from, forward dental peripatetic clinics in Afghanistan.

The majority of dental care for military personnel is carried out in clinics that would be familiar to all dental professionals. In times of conflict, however, dental care is often required to travel to those in need. Dental morbidity has a detrimental effect on a fighting force, both at the personal level and for maintaining combat efficiency. In Afghanistan, two main dental centres provided the majority of emergency care to coalition forces, but from March to September 2012, 23 peripatetic clinics also took place with 472 dental casualties treated. Assessment of these peripatetic clinics demonstrates both quantitative and qualitative benefits. Return travel to main base clinics takes between three to five days. If all personnel during this period had attended a main base and returned to their duty station in only three days, over 1,000 duty days would have been lost. This compares to the 32 days actually lost by attending peripatetic clinics instead and illustrates the considerable time that was saved. Additionally, time spent travelling in a hostile environment is also time at risk of attack. Forty-one anonymous comments about the clinics were left by personnel. All were positive and enthusiastic. The results of this review demonstrate that these clinics save considerable mission time, reduce risk to military personnel, and were greatly valued by those suffering dental problems.