Filling the Gap

Filling the Gap

Filling the Gap was a partnership between Wuchopperen Health Service in Queensland and the community it serves, the Filling the Gap Program board in Sydney, and volunteer dentists who treat patients from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in and around Cairns.

The program was privately funded and voluntary and its steering committee comprised four Jews: Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver AM, at the time working in the Muru Marri Indigenous Health Unit, UNSW; retired dentist Dr David Rosenwax; and advocates Gael Kennedy and Uri Windt OAM.

From January 2006, when the Filling the Gap program started, until December 2009, 125 volunteer dentists and 13 oral health professionals provided over 6,000 treatment sessions to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over 186 dental weeks.

After 2009, the Filling the Gap name was taken over by a larger group and became a much bigger program.