LLU School of Dentistry Dentalgram

Dentalgram

September 2002

Dr. Floyd Hansen assists dental clinics in Armenia

Dr. Floyd Hansen (3rd from right), poses with workers from a dental clinic in Yerevan, Armenia.

Floyd Hansen, SD’80; PG’81, assistant professor, department of oral diagnosis, radiology, and pathology, has returned from a mission to Armenia made at the request of a United States-based charitable foundation, The Howard Karagheusian Commemorative Corporation.

Armenia was once the smallest of the Soviet Republics. In the most recent available reports, 45 percent of the country live below the poverty line.
While in Armenia, Dr. Hansen shared radiological information with staff dentists. He spent much of his time in Yerevan, the country’s capital and largest city.

After visiting dental clinics in North and South Yerevan administered by the Foundation, he reported to the Foundation about their strengths, as well as equipment and supply needs.

Dr. Hansen was asked to report on strengths and needs of dental clinics in North and South Yerevan.

While in Armenia, Dr. Hansen’s host was Dr. Vahram Jouharyan. In addition to his work in the clinics in North and South Yerevan, Dr. Hansen will always remember visits to Khor Virap and Genocide Memorial. The Memorial is in remembrance of those lost during a massacre in April, 1915, during World War I, when the Turks ordered the deportation of the Armenian population to the deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia. According to the majority of historians, as many as 1.5 million Armenians were murdered or died of starvation.

One of the world’s oldest civilizations, Armenia once included Mount Ararat, which biblical tradition identifies as the mountain that Noah’s ark rested on after the flood.

It was the first country in the world to officially embrace Christianity as its religion (c. A.D. 300).

Sources: <infoplease.com>; The World Factbook, 2001.

Armenia remembers their lost during Genocide Memorial Day. This photo was taken by Dr. Hansen at the Genocide Memorial.