Earlier this spring Paula Ancelson and Stephanie Trahan, both fourth-year doctor of dental medicine students at Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine, traveled to Guatemala for separate two-week trips with Dentistry For All, a Canadian nonprofit that offers dental education, prevention, and corrective treatment in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and the Philippines.
Trahan and Ancelson joined groups of volunteers (between 15 to 18 people) once they arrived in Guatemala, and each estimated they treated between 80 and 100 patients. Dentistry For All travels around Guatemala providing outreach, so Trahan worked mainly in Antigua and El Remante -- somewhat populated areas with a lot of tourists -- while Ancelson worked in more rural areas, including Guatemala City, Comitancillo, and Santa Isabella, a refugee camp.
Ancelson described how her group was fed home-cooked meals by the locals in their adobe huts. "I was amazed at how welcoming the locals were and also how gracious and thankful they were for our help," she said.
They were both also impressed with how well funded the trip was, compared with others they had heard about.
"This mission had as much, if not better, supplies than the dental school," Ancelson said.
Trahan noted that, though the work of Dentistry For All is excellent, the Guatemalan people still have unmet oral health needs.
"I saw a great need for dentures in people because many patients had so many teeth extracted they could barely chew," she said. "There was also an abundance of root tips visible from teeth that had rotted out. I was concerned about the lack of education among the population. Patients just wanted us to take care of the pain; they didn't care about prevention or learning about how to maintain their teeth."
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