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A Model for Mission Dentistry in a Developing Country
Each year many dentists embark on mission trips to foreign countries. This article shares what one group learned in their journey over the course of 17 years to bring oral health to a rural community in Honduras. The group began by delivering acute dental care, but soon realized that this treatment...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5539418/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28824892 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00119 |
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author | Tepe, Jan Hexamer Tepe, Lawrence J. |
author_facet | Tepe, Jan Hexamer Tepe, Lawrence J. |
author_sort | Tepe, Jan Hexamer |
collection | PubMed |
description | Each year many dentists embark on mission trips to foreign countries. This article shares what one group learned in their journey over the course of 17 years to bring oral health to a rural community in Honduras. The group began by delivering acute dental care, but soon realized that this treatment would never change the status of oral health in the community. Year by year they learned what worked and what did not. A school-based dental prevention program was initiated using proven preventive techniques to demonstrate to the community that prevention of oral disease was possible. As of 2015, the school-based program had grown to over 10 schools and nearly 1,000 children had benefited from this program. Children in the program received all necessary treatments for the prevention and treatment of dental caries. As importantly, they and their families learned to understand how to be responsible for their own dental needs. In conclusion, it is possible to effect long-term change in a developing country by focusing on prevention of oral problems rather than focusing on the extraction hopeless teeth. The good intentions, time, and financial resources of volunteers can be put to best use by first learning about the needs and wants of a particular community. The authors recommend that volunteers partner with local health-care providers and research what other organizations are currently doing in their country of interest. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5539418 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-55394182017-08-18 A Model for Mission Dentistry in a Developing Country Tepe, Jan Hexamer Tepe, Lawrence J. Front Public Health Public Health Each year many dentists embark on mission trips to foreign countries. This article shares what one group learned in their journey over the course of 17 years to bring oral health to a rural community in Honduras. The group began by delivering acute dental care, but soon realized that this treatment would never change the status of oral health in the community. Year by year they learned what worked and what did not. A school-based dental prevention program was initiated using proven preventive techniques to demonstrate to the community that prevention of oral disease was possible. As of 2015, the school-based program had grown to over 10 schools and nearly 1,000 children had benefited from this program. Children in the program received all necessary treatments for the prevention and treatment of dental caries. As importantly, they and their families learned to understand how to be responsible for their own dental needs. In conclusion, it is possible to effect long-term change in a developing country by focusing on prevention of oral problems rather than focusing on the extraction hopeless teeth. The good intentions, time, and financial resources of volunteers can be put to best use by first learning about the needs and wants of a particular community. The authors recommend that volunteers partner with local health-care providers and research what other organizations are currently doing in their country of interest. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-08-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5539418/ /pubmed/28824892 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00119 Text en Copyright © 2017 Tepe and Tepe. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Public Health Tepe, Jan Hexamer Tepe, Lawrence J. A Model for Mission Dentistry in a Developing Country |
title | A Model for Mission Dentistry in a Developing Country |
title_full | A Model for Mission Dentistry in a Developing Country |
title_fullStr | A Model for Mission Dentistry in a Developing Country |
title_full_unstemmed | A Model for Mission Dentistry in a Developing Country |
title_short | A Model for Mission Dentistry in a Developing Country |
title_sort | model for mission dentistry in a developing country |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5539418/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28824892 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00119 |
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