1 February 2011

Today I felt a flush of emotions as I watched the dentists make decisions.

In a situation like this, when you have more need than you can possibly handle there is a choice each doctor must make: Do you provide a triage-like service by curing what is the worst in each mouth and calling in the next patient quickly? Or, do you spend time on each mouth until it is perfectly clean and beautiful to the best of your ability?

There were both kinds of dentist in this campaign. I left the day deep in thought wondering which direction I would lead if I were a dentist. (long stretch, I know)

I found myself leaning towards working in each mouth until it is as clean as I can get it. Mainly because we are here in this particular campaign because these people don’t have access to dentistry. If we were to only perform triag, the patient would still need to seek out a dentist in the near future, something they can’t afford and probably wont do. So, in essence I wouldn’t feel like I had been any help at all, only prolonging the inevitable. But, producing as clean a mouth as possible might help them avoid seeing another dentist for years if they are taught how to keep their teeth clean.

But… what do I know. I am no dentist.

What I do know is that this campaign lacks sustainability. I need to meet with one of the directors of HBI tomorrow to express my concerns for it's lack of attention to the huge educational need here. If we 1) teach the people here how to keep their mouths clean, we won't need as grandiose dental campaigns and people can keep their teeth 2) in the meantime, we need to make campaigns cyclical so they happen more often and all those who need to be attended to are.