The art of ART (Atraumatic Restorative Treatment) – meeting its inventor in Blantyre

I arrived back in Blantyre on 2nd February for the first of four blocks of six weeks each that I will be spending at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) during 2025 as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Oral Health Sciences. One of the joys of the journey to Malawi is watching the African sunrise and this time I had a window seat on the Emirates Airbus A380 from Dubai to Johannesburg. It is impossible to capture the real beauty of the colours in a photograph, but this was the best of several attempts:

The story to be related in this blog began back in December 2024, when I received an e-mail from someone I had never previously met, called Jo Frencken:

The substance of Jo’s e-mail is self-explanatory. Jo had found my e-mail address through reading our MalDent Project blog and was keen to re-connect with Peter Chimimba, my long-term friend and colleague, and The Maldent Project lead in Malawi. I forwarded Jo’s e-mail to Peter and contact was restored!

Jo graduated DDS from the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in 1975. He had worked as a Dental Officer at St Luke’s Hospital in Milosa, Malawi, between January 1977 and January 1980, which was where he had met Peter. In 1981 he completed an MSc in Dental Public Health at the University of London then moved to the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as a Lecturer in Preventive and Community Dentistry from January 1982-1986. He returned to the University of Nijmegen between 1986 and 1988 to complete his PhD, then from November 1988 – January 1992 was a Senior Researcher in the Department of Community Dental Health & Epidemiology, Netherlands Institute for Preventive Health Care in Leiden. In a further return to Africa, Jo spent January 1992 – July 1997 as Consultant in Dental Public Health at the Ministry of Health & Child Welfare, Zimbabwe, where he was also Acting Chief Dental Officer. Jo spent the remainder of his career in a variety of senior academic posts in the Netherlands until his retirement from academic dentistry in 2015.

Subsequently, Jo informed Peter that he would be visiting Malawi in late January / early February. By coincidence, his time in Blantyre coincided with the start of my own visit – and that was how I came to meet the inventor of Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART).

On Thursday 6th February, Jo spent the morning at the Blantyre Campus of KUHeS with Peter and I. We were joined by our junior teaching staff colleagues, Nathan Lungu and Tasneem Chikwatu. We provided Jo with a summary of the various components of The MalDent Project, our progress to date and aspirations for the future. Subsequently, Jo spoke about some of his own work and academic interests, especially in the field of minimal intervention dentistry and atraumatic restorative treatment. It was during his time delivering dental care in low-resource settings in Africa that he had developed the concept of ART, and it was such a privilege for us to hear from the originator himself about this technique which has become so well known in dentistry and is of such direct relevance to Malawi.

Jo had kindly brought a number of books with him which he donated to the Department:

Following a fascinating morning, Jo, Nathan and I enjoyed lunch together before dropping Jo back at his hotel

Later in the day, Peter and I were able to meet with Jo at his hotel to discuss how he might become involved in The MalDent Project. With his wealth of experience delivering clinical service and dental education in Africa, together with an extensive research record (214 peer reviewed journal articles, co-author of seven scientific books and 16 book chapters), we could not have wished for a more experienced adviser and collaborator. During his career he had also held senior positions in both the FDI (World Dental Federation) and WHO, adding further to his credentials for collaborating with us. We agreed that we would develop a proposal, incorporating training opportunities for the teaching staff as well as support for undergraduate training, that Jo could utilise in discussions with his many contacts and attempt to seek additional support for our work moving forwards. Before Peter and I left, Jo kindly presented us with copies of one of his books entitled ‘The art and science of Minimal Intervention Dentistry and Atraumatic Restorative Treatment’.

Jo left Blantyre on 7th February for a few days visiting his old haunts in Malawi, but we had opportunity to meet him once again on 11th February, before he travelled back to the Netherlands. On this occasion we were able to introduce him to Dr Mwapatsa Mipando who, in his former role as Principal of the University of Malawi College of Medicine, had been the initiator of The MalDent Project.

Our work with Jo is just beginning – another exciting chapter opens in The MalDent Project story!