Globe-trotting dentists
Posted: June 28, 2013
ASDOH students provide oral healthcare in Tanzania
To be born with xeroderma pigmentosa (XP) or albinism is not uncommon for a child in Tanzania. Both are inherited conditions, and XP can cause skin and oral cancer to develop before age 5. But to be born with either of these conditions is to be culturally shunned by the community.
Patients in the dental clinic included blind and albino children.
For 10 days last July, through a partnership with K2 Adventures Foundation, ASDOH students provided oral healthcare for these special needs children at Mwereni Integrated School for the Blind in Moshi, Tanzania, a town near Mt. Kilimanjaro. K2 Adventures Foundation, an organization that provides educational and medical services, support, and funds to those with special needs and life-changing medical circumstances, offers medical and dental clinics at the school.
At the dental clinic, third- and fourth-year students, accompanied by an adjunct faculty advisor, provided care to hundreds of children, including some orphans who live at the school to keep them safe from witch doctors who believe that children with albinism are cursed.
“For most of these children, whose ages range from 5-18, it was the first time they had ever seen a dentist,” said Abbas Fazel, DDS, adjunct faculty advisor.
Erin Aying, Sarah Usher, Dr. Abbas Fazel, Nadia Fazel, Nipa Patel, and Abrahim Caroci
Since one of the major oral health problems in the region is dental fluorosis, an exposure to high concentrations of fluoride during tooth development, most of the students’ work involved fillings and extractions.
One student, Sarah Usher, D3, was accompanied by her husband, Dustin, an ITS support specialist at ATSU. He fixed donated computers to make them usable for children at the school.
“We wanted to enrich their whole lives, not just their healthcare,” Sarah said. “Overall, it was an enriching experience that touched our hearts much more than we could ever touch them with a toothbrush.”