Honduras Dental Mission June 2011: Thursday June 16, 2011

This morning Alex, Rejine and Christina B all cooked a wonderful breakfast! We had fried plantains and hard boiled eggs!

I think we have finally figured out a good rhythm with the clinic after 5 days. Today ran very smoothly and we really got a lot of excellent dentistry done.

Sadly, our day started off with a Root Canal turned extraction on a young 18yo boy. We had to inform him that we had to pull his right front tooth because there wasn´t enough enamel left to restore it properly. Normally, we would do the root canal and then place a crown over the tooth for strength and stability, but here, there is no access to a lab or dental technician. Even if we did have access, the price would most likely be too high for the patient to pay. Hopefully the root canal we have scheduled for tomorrow morning goes better!

The NOMAD has come in really handy and has allowed us to take radiographs of questionable teeth. It´s great that we are able to take it outside and use it where we don´t have to disrupt everybody working inside the clinic!

Also, the two Honduran dentists from Teguicigalpa, Dr. Arita and Dr. Cruz, came to work with us today. It was great to have their expertise and share our passion for dentistry with dentists from another country. We are hoping to set up one of our missions in 2012 with them in Copan.

Dr. Ngai saw a lot of kids today and unfortunately had to do a lot of extractions. It is so sad when a 9yo boy comes in for a filling on his permanent molar and it turns out to so extensive that we have to pull it. Without root canals and crowns, there is just no saving teeth with cavities so deep that they penetrate the pulp.

All of us students have been getting a lot of experience with restoring and extracting teeth! By now we have all pulled teeth and done fillings on multiple patients. There is nothing more valuable than actually doing the procedure on a real person in order to build your confidence and understand the anatomy of the tooth!

The people here have been so generous and kind to all of us. We know how grateful they are to have us here, but we are also grateful to have the cultural experience and the opportunity to work in the rural conditions. Going on mission trips like this make us more resourceful, creative, and inventive dentists.

We are looking forward to our last clinic day tomorrow and of course are all getting super excited about ROATAN!!!!