Day 6 - Thursday, February 28, 2013 SECOND CLINIC DAY - CAI LAY District, THANH LOC Elementary School

After a first clinic day like yesterday, we are all charged up for today.  We reach Thanh Loc Elementary school after a long 1hr.20mn. drive from our hotel in My Tho.  We are pleased to see the students lined up in the school playground, it shows that the school administrative and teachers do care about the dental health of their pupils, that is a very good sign.

Every school we go to has over a thousand student population, when the principal, his office, and all of the teachers are prepared for our arrival, we can be more efficient and able to serve more of the kids in a day.

 We use whatever school tables and chairs to set up the clinic and start right to work.

 We set up a waiting area in the middle of our classroom-dental clinic so the children can play with LEGO pieces, puzzles, and coloring books while they are waiting for their turn, they get lost in play and not worry about the dental treatment.

 Lunch time usually happens after 1pm, our cook does an excellent job at preparing a sumptuous vegetarian and a non-vegetarian feast to please everyone.  Friends who work hard together have a lot of fun eating together!

 When Dr. Hue is not giving dental health education and screening the children in their classrooms or in the courtyard, she would jump in, find a little space in our crowded make shift clinic, a space at a table, pull up a little chair, make up an instant fluoride station and get the kids taken care of, one after another. 

Almost every child we see from kindergarten up to 5th grade have some degree of dental decay, many suffered from dental pain.  I develop these dental health education sessions in an attempt to empower parents with children under 5 with the knowledge of how easy and simple it is to prevent decay, something every parent can do in their home each evening.  Dental treatment without dental health education is like going two step backward for every step forward.  Dental disease prevention has to be an important aspect of a serious long term dental relief program.  We can't just taking badly decayed teeth out all day long without sharing the knowledge of how to prevent this sad situation to begin with.

Don't you love that cap?  Don't think they know what FBI really means, don't know where she obtains it, or how long she owns that cap in the middle of rural Mekong Delta in VN!
Another good day, we screened 680 kids, and treated 343, gifts of toothbrush and school supplies provided to all 1,112 students at this elementary school, and 147 gifts to teachers and villagers who attended the dental health education session.