Dominican Republic Dental Trip

So I know this has taken me a while to post. Here are some pictures from my trip with the G3 Foundation to the Dominican Republic in January. It was an amazing experience. Not only were we able to help people that really needed it, but we got a lot of good experience too. I basically doubled the number of fillings I had done prior to the trip. I was able to do some cool things that don't come along very often, like fixing broken front teeth and other aesthetic work. I also was able to do a lot of extractions, which I found out I actually enjoy. I never would have thought that before dental school- messy stuff used to creep me out.

I pulled two teeth from this girl. At first she was crying and scared. By the end she was joking around and smiling. It was sad that the teeth had to come out when she is so young, but at least I was able to get her out of pain.



Drinking Malta in the rain.
While we were there we rotated through different duties- one morning I would do fillings, in the afternoon extractions. I spent the most time in those two stations, but I also did some Pedo (working of little kids). the most difficult duty was triage. I had too walk through crowds of people and decide who we could help and how we could help them. I had moms begging me to see their kids, kids begging for fillings. It was depressing, especially since even the people we could see normally needed lots of work and we could only do one or two things.

It was easy to get depressed about what we couldn't do, but we were able to make a big difference for some. I think the most sobering thought was that at the same time on the other side of the island in Haiti others were going through the same process, but their decisions resulted in life or death.

Towards the end of our third day working, I was doing fillings and I finished up with my patient. They told me I could possibly see one more patient if I hurried, since we only had about 20 minutes left. I went outside, trying to decide if I should take anyone else, and I was about to just go and clean up. I went over and got a patient, a young girl that needed a lot of work. I sat her down, wondering if I would be able to get anything done. She had two large cavities in her front teeth, so I went for it. I was able to do them quickly (a big deal for me). The girl was really happy, and it felt great to know that I was able to help one more person that I almost didn't.

The last two days we were able to work out of an LDS church in Boca Chica. It was amazing how at home I felt the moment we arrived. As cool as the other locations were, there was something very different about those two days. I did a filling on a recently returned missionary, and someone else did all the work on a young man to allow him to turn in his papers and go on a mission. I'm happy to help anyone, but there was something special about being able to help other members of the Church. After a full day of us slow students working, the doctors decided to stay after and spend the night doing work for the members who had spent the day organizing and helping.

I could go on, but this is already a little wordy. It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to go next year as long as I can put the money together for the trip. Thanks to those that contributed to help make this trip possible.