Friday June 17, 2011

Today was our last day of clinic! It has been an extremely long week, but we had some very complicated cases scheduled for today. 

First, Rupali and Christina Lin worked on the second root canal on our patient, Kique. They were able to save both of his front teeth from extraction by removing the infection inside of the teeth and restoring them with composite (tooth colored fillings). The NOMAD Handheld X-Ray machine came in very handy during the root canal. They were able to do the entire procedure in another room and didn't have to bother everybody working in the clinic everytime they had to take an x-ray. Kique was very grateful! Dr. Arita told us that the UCLA groups are probably the first dentists to do Root Canals in Guaimaca. These people would never receive this kind of care even if they could afford it. Doing root canals in Honduras is very rare and pretty much unheard of in rural villages.

Alex and Lauren worked on restoring 9yo Jonathan's front teeth. He started with massive Class III caries between his front two teeth-->

By the time they were done, they had restored his front teeth fully and he just couldn't stop smiling. Jonathan and his mother were extremely happy!

Jessica and I worked on restoring a man's last molar on his bottom left. It had a huge lesion that luckily did not reach the pulp. We managed to clean out all of the caries and restore the tooth fully with amalgam.

Christina using the NOMAD during the Root Canal Treatment

Lauren and Rupali restored this young boy's front teeth, just like Jonathan. They were able to remove all of the caries and restore his teeth fully. Losing these teeth at such a young age is so devastating for these kids. Many children as young as 13 or 14 already have partial dentures.

 After a shortened day in clinic due to the fact that we have to pack everything up and clean the clinic, we calculated that we treated at least 90 patients in 5 days. We also saw over 100 patients in the rural towns for oral hygiene instruction and screenings for future dental mission groups. Overall, we had an extremely successful mission. We did excellent dentistry and were able to provide the poor people of Guaimaca, Honduras a service they probably would never have received. We all learned so much about treating patients, patient management, new dental skills and improvising in the dental clinic. This trip has made us better dentists, built up our confidence and taught us to work with whatever we have available.

We would like to thank Sister Maria and the rest of the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation for taking care of us throught the week. Your kindess and spirt are just incredible and we couldn't have accomplished as much as we did without your help and support. 

Thank you to Alexis and Mary for making sure that we all had food and everything we needed throughout the week! You guys did an amazing job!

Thank you to Dr. Arita and Dr. Cruz for visting us at the mission and helping us in the clinic. It was an honor to meet you both and I hope we are able to do a full mission trip together in the near future.

Thank you to all of our sponsors, family and friends for your support of our work. Without you all none of this would be possible...I know that sounds corny, but it's really true!!

After clinic was finished, all of us took a tour of Guaimaca to see where most of our patients live. It was extremely interesting to see how the native people live. We took lots of pictures...

Sister Maria, Mary, Rico and the music teacher at the school all came over and sang us traditional Honduran songs. It was so much fun! We taught them the Hokie Pokie because that's what it's all about!!

We also celebrated Dr. Nader's BIRTHDAY!! Alexis made him a cake and we had green honduran wine made from blackberries. It was very interesting!

We worked on a lot of these little boys at the clinic. They were very excited to see us all in the village!

Logging is very popular in Honduras. They have beautiful forests that companies have begun to capitalize on. The mission has been working hard to get the forests surrounding Guaimaca protected by the government so that the companies are not able to cut them down. Hopefully the forests will be saved!

 

Finally we finished everything at the mission and we all said goodbye to our new friends. We have to get up at 4am and leave for the airport at 430a to get to our 830a flight to Roatan! We are all excited for some sun and beach!!!!!