Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Tuesday June 14, 2011

Today we finally had everybody here! After the craziness that happened yesterday with all of the portable dental units, we were all up and running for today! (Dr. Patterson...WE NEED YOU!)

Mahdad and Michelle posed for the camera with our awesome banner!

The 2014 students are getting more and more confident with their skills. We taught them how to do injections by practicing on each other. This is something that we all have to do at the end of summer quarter...so they will be extra prepared!
I know that Dr. Scott Ngai and Christina were very excited to finally get into clinic and do some dentistry!
The kids here are so well behaved and Scott has really enjoyed working with them. We are taking pictures of all of the adorable kids for his brochure once he gets out of residency and starts his own pediatric dentistry practice!
This young girl is a student at the mission´s school. She needed extensive cavties filled and we worked on her for almost 3 or 4 hours. Luckily we were able to save all of the teeth and she didn´t need any extractions! Rejine is learning to be quite an awesome assistant and I know that she is learning so much about dentistry over the past few days!
Hayley did a filling on this patient! With Michelle´s help, they were able to save the tooth!
In the afternoon, Lauren, Michelle, Christina L, Mahdad and Shiva all went to a small village town to do screenings, oral hygiene instruction and fluoride for children. They saw some pretty terrible mouths including a 9yo girl who had never brushed her teeth. It is just heartbreaking to see these young kids with so many dental problems. There is no education about oral hygiene, diet and keeping your mouth clean here. Getting extractions at young ages is the norm and the people do not think it is weird or bad in anyway. They accept it and get partial and complete dentures made by the mechanics.
Shiva taught oral hygiene instruction completely in Spanish! We are all practicing our Spanish and are all getting better and better each day!
These girls obviously learned well and had a great teacher!
The village was on a mountain top near Guaimaca. The view was just breathtaking!
This church was built in honor of two children who were murdered in the town. It is a memorial for them and their family.
After working at the church with the children, the group went to a family´s home nearby for some fresh coffee and homemade cookies! They enjoyed talking with the people and learning more about the Honduran culture in the rural mountain villages.
 
After the students returned from the village and we finished up in the clinic, the boys challenged us to another soccer game. We were so tired from the night before and a full packed day of clinic that we just couldn´t hold on to the win. They beat us 11-8 this time, but we had a great time! Some of the locals were even betting on the game and cheering for us when we scored goals! 

As usual, we look forward to another awesome day!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Monday June 13, 2011


This morning we began with a fully booked schedule! Four students went to a local community center and screened children for dental problems, taught them how to brush and floss, handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste as well as did fluoride treatments.

The rest of us worked on restorative and extractions back in the clinic.

Alex and I did a large Class II amalgam on this young girls´ lower right molar. It was quite extensive and we had to be careful not to have a pulp exposure. Since our suction units are extremely limited, we had to resort to having her spit into a cup underneath the rubber dam. It was hard to get the tooth isolated for the filling, but eventually it all worked out!
Lauren extracted some premolars on this young man. They were difficult because the roots were curved. But, luckily she was able to get them out without breaking a root tip!


 This adorable little boy got spooked when the compressor and the units blew out. He was so scared that we weren´t able to do his restorations. He and his brother will be coming back later in the week now that we got everything fixed!
 Nader, Shiva and Michelle worked on edentulating this patient. He only had a few teeth remaining and it is easier for the patients to get complete dentures made than partial dentures. Here in Honduras, many people go to the ¨Dental Mechanic.¨ These people are appretencehip trained on extractions and fabricating complete and partial dentures. They have no formal dental training and often leave root tips in the bone. These often become infected and cause the patient a lot of problems. However, the Mechanics are much cheaper than a real dentist, which is why the people here prefer going to them over a real dentist.


 Since the compressor and the portable dental units broke down in the afternoon, the number of patients that we were able to see was very limited. Many of us worked hard to fix the units while the three remaining chairs had patients. We eventually got all of the units fixed with the help of a local electrician! Since the clinic was going slowly anyways, we decided to end a little bit early and go and play soccer with the locals at 5pm.


USA vs HONDURAS....RESULT......
USA 18 HON 15!!!
We actually won! They challenged us to another match tonight and I think they will be bringing their A team this time!







We had THE BEST cheering section ever!


 Dr. Scott Ngai and Christina Lin finally arrived and we were able to thank our doctors for being here with us!!!


Can´t wait for another great day in Guaimaca!!!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sunday, June 12, 2011

This morning Shiva, Nader and Mah-dad made a wonderful french toast breakfast! We went to mass at the mission´s church and were introduced to the congregation that we will primarily be treating throughout the week. After church, we finished setting up the clinic and began triaging patients for the week. Since many of the people who came to mass today live far away, we decided to treat the patients that needed extractions. 
While the older students were working on treating patients, Hayley, Alex, Jessica and Christina taught Oral Hygiene Instruction and gave fluoride treatments to all of the children. 

Michelle, Lauren and I all did some prophies on the patients that didn´t need extensive work. We taught the first years how to do them, so they will be able to do cleanings while patients are waiting for a restoration or extraction or for anesthesia to start working.
Rejine got to do a tooth brush prophy (like the spinning cup after you get your teeth cleaned) on one of our younger patients after we finished the scaling.



 The Honduran dentist, Dr. Adan Arita met us in Guaimaca and worked with us throughout the day. He was so helpful when we had to remove some root tips and broken down teeth. He and his other friends will be back to work with us on Thursday and Friday.
After a long day in the clinic, Andrew finally got his wish...ICE CREAM!!!! It was great to cool off and relax before the big week really begins tomorrow!!

SHOUT OUT TO OUR NUMBER 1 FOLLOWER- JON GOLDMAN!!!!!!
 
PREVIEW FOR TOMORROW-USA vs HONDURAS SOCCER GAME!!!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

WE MADE IT!!!!!

We got off the plane and all 26 bags and bins arrived safe and sound, including our new portable unit.The mission was there to greet us and help us with all of the supplies. Once they were packed on top of the bus, we took off from Teguicigalpa for Valley of the Angels for lunch and souveniors.


 
 We are all so excited to be here!



The country side is beautiful and the weather was perfect all day!
Lunch was amazing! We had traditional Honduran fajitas, platos tipicos and steak! Fresh handmade tortillas over the wooden fire...AWESOME!
After another 2 hour bumpy ride on the bus, we arrived at the mission and dove right into sorting supplies and instruments...we have a long and tough week ahead of us, but it´s going to be great! Can´t wait to finally get some sleep!!

WE'RE OFF!!!!!

FINALLY GOT EVERYTHING CHECKED IN...INCLUDING THE DENTAL UNIT :)

OUR FLIGHT IS ON TIME!!