Today was an amazing day! We were not scheduled at an orphanage as expected but instead a school of children ranging in ages of 6-21. All of the children are special needs; most being deaf or blind and many with extensive dental needs. We were once again very warmly welcomed and treated like royalty by all of the students and staff. Several groups of deaf children performed dances for us. It was very interesting to see all of them keep time to the music that was playing without being able to hear. Two blind children sang beautiful songs for us and it was very touching. How incredibly lucky we were to receive such expressions of gratitude.
After the greeting, our group worked together to come up with a plan for the day. We decided to push tables together to act as treatment operatories. One table was used by Randy and Jimmy for screening and recording existing decay, two others were set up for fluoride varnish application. An area in one corner of the room was set up for toothbrushing instructions and another area was set up for sterilization (pots of boiling water). Jolene applied the fluoride varnish and Mike moved back and forth from oral hygiene education to applying the varnish as well. For the "non dental" person in the group, he is a quick learner and jumps in wherever needed. My spent most of her time with oral hygiene instructions so she could translate for us. We were treated to a wonderful lunch prepared at the school and then continued our work in the afternoon. We were surprised and happy to see that a few of the children did not have any specific dental needs but unfortunately the majority did had some type of decay ranging from small carious lesions to full pulp exposures and abscesses. There was a significant amount of gingivitis and many of the children needed full quadrant scaling and root planing. I wished so much that I had my instruments with me but even then, local anesthetic would have been needed to clean them properly. As dental professionals, it was very difficult for us to be so limited in our ability to provide complete treatment. All in all though we considered it a successful day. We screened, applied fluoride varnish and educated 94 children!
Tomorrow we will go back to the same school to do ART (Atraumatic Restorative Treatment). We found about 20 occlusal and buccal surfaces that would qualify for the procedure.
It is close to 7:00 pm in Vietnam on Christmas Eve which means it's about 5:00 am for you in the US. After quick showers (it was particularly hot and muggy today and the building we were working in did not have air conditioning) we will head downstairs to a Christmas buffet that is put on by the hotel. It does feel a bit strange that we are not with our families and friends this holiday but we are thinking about all of you.
Take care and have a Merry Christmas!
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