I serve with Mercy Ships. Everything here, however, is my personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. Opinions, conclusions and other information expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Mercy Ships

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Extreme Dentistry.....

Today and yesterday the dental team played traveling dental clinic. We closed down Avotrou and packed up dental chairs, instruments, medication, water, anesthetic, headlamps, and all the other needed equipment to set up a makeshift clinic at the Psychiatric Home in Cotonou. Our main goal for this outreach.... we like to call it extreme dentistry (sounds more adventurous) is to provide the residence with an opportunity to be able to be seen and treated by a dentist. 

Last year when we did our extreme dentistry outreach at the prison in Liberia we treated almost 200 patients in 2 days. So with that in mind and also with the tid bits I received from the facility we planned on seeing anywhere from 150-200 patients in the two days. When it was all said and done we treated 39. HAHA oh how I love the management style of those who are "IN CHARGE" of things in Africa. 

Even thought the numbers where lower than expected it was still worth it. This morning when I was walking around the parameters of the facility looking for patients I ran into 3 people who made it worth all the hassle and planning that comes into an event like this. Two ladies and one older man who was calling himself Fidel Castro President of Cuba really made me realized that its all for the sake of even just once person. As I passed each of them they all separately said thank you for coming, I was in pain yesterday and now I feel much better. It is not about the numbers, it is about the impact that you make even if it is only on a handful of people.


Below are a few pics I took while we were there:  


Simon, Claudia, and Don extracting a tooth on a resident of the facility. 

A resident who just wanted to come check out what the white people were doing... she did not want to see the dentist though. Think she was scared.
Sieh my new assistant, he was one of our day workers in Liberia now he is here as crew to serve along side us. 
Registration. Joyce and Florent
A sister who thought she would come take advantage of this opportunity
My favorite patient of the 2 days. This is the face he gave me when I asked him to smile. 
Comfort, Roland, and Arnold our disciplers blowing up balloons and make the crazy ballon hats you see on everyone. Roseann and Midokpa sterilzers
More work going on. 
Dell getting patients numb
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