Breakfast at 6 am (it is 6pm at home in the US) in the open air
courtyard, very good choices of beef noodles, pork noodles, eggs
prepared to order, rice and pork chops, crusty bread, butter and
jam,Vietnamese coffee, fruit juice, tea, milk, food is very good in VN
if you are not a picky-eater!
7am we loaded supplies in our van, join the van of the Red Cross staff,
our box truck, form a convoy to head to district Cai Be at the far end
of the province, it took nearly an hour and a half to reach My Loi A
elementary school. The fifth graders dress in their best school uniform
gather in large groups waiting for our arrival. No classes for the day
so the students can be treated by our team.
It took 30 chaotic minutes to create our make shift clinic. Two side by
side classrooms were chosen for our use. One classroom is the actual
dental clinic, tables are set on both sides of the door in front of the
classroom, one side is where the kids will be screened and the teeth
need taken out or fluoride treatment will be marked before they go
inside the room, on the other side of the door is a table with home care
package where the kids will get their names checked, receive the gift
and leave after treatment. Inside the classroom we set up a
sterilization station against the back wall, 3 fluoride stations on one
side, 3 surgical stations on the other, up front by the blackboard is
the pharmacy station, in the middle of the classroom is the waiting area
lined with tables and chairs for our little patients, there are toys,
puzzles, coloring books for the kids to enjoy while they wait for their
turn. We use the student's tables and chairs to make up all of these
treatment stations. The classroom next door is used as an
office/supply/lunch/everything room for our team.
Lan at first station at the door of "our clinic", doing dental
education, obtaining consent, marking the teeth that need treatment.
Robin our hygienist doing scaling, fluoride treatment, sometimes
injection and extraction of broken deciduous teeth with the help of an
assistant Oanh.
Phuong and Dr. Hue doing fluoride treatment for a patient with the help of Lien, a local assistant.
Lea and her assistant Tho giving fluoride sealant to a little girl.
Paul and his assistant Tien at an extraction station.
Dr. Mikey watching Dr. Shannon administering local anesthesia to a brave patient, Tram is Dr. Shannon's assistant.
Trang is at "Pharmacy/Santa station" comforting kids after treatment,
giving post op. instruction, cleaning them up, giving them antibiotics
and anti-inflammatory medication as well as gifts of different toys.
Afternoon dental health education provided to parents with children
under 5 as part of our dental disease prevention and community
empowerment program at every village our team comes to serve.
Today we screened 628 students (234 received dental treatment of
fluoride or extraction, many times both, most children had multiple
extractions) all received a gift bag of toothbrush, school supplies, and
toys. We gave total of 1,017 toothbrushes for all the kids at this
school, 145 gift bags to the school teachers and villagers today. First
day of our dental outreach is usually the hardest day for the team
since we just came together from half way around the world and many are
new to our set up, yet today turns out to be a terrifically productive
and wonderfully satisfying day!
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