Orthodontist
does restorative dentistry in Peru
Matthew Johnson
 |
| Gary Cornforth, SD’68, MS’75, an orthodontist who practices in Jamestown, North Dakota, anesthetizes a young girl at an airport, in the Amazon basin of Peru. |
Dr. Gary Cornforth
of Jamestown, North Dakota, and his wife, Marilyn Cornforth, recently
spent two weeks in the “bush,” a hot, remote area of Peru, providing
dental service to people who don’t even own a toothbrush.
In fact, while there in an area reachable only by a large
tributary of the Amazon River, the couple handed out more than 2,000 toothbrushes.
They also treated about 800 people and removed -- with anesthesia -- about
1,600 rotten teeth.
“The people just culdn’t get over it (how anesthesia
could numb the pain),” Marilyn said.
She said after pulling the first tooth using anesthesia word of the lack
of pain involved quickly spread up and down the Amazon basin.
“The next day there were more than two times the number
of people. And they were such good patients,” Marilyn remembers.
“We had little children just five years old come over
to us and point to the rotten teeth. And they were such good patients
because they had already endured so much pain in their little lives,”
Marilyn said.
The couple was invited to join a group of 30 Christian Maranatha
Volunteers International, from Lincoln, Nebraska, who were planning a
trip to Peru to refurbish a “rusted boat.” The boat eventually
came in handy as a medical-dental launch down the Amazon.
Also, the small plane the couple used was an essential resource
for getting medical supplies to those who desperately need them.
“It was in the hangar beside this plane that we set
up a crude dental clinic to help solve the dental problems of horrible
decay, rotten root tips, tooth aches and periodontal involvement,”
Marilyn said.
The couple worked long hours in 80-degree heat and 90 percent
humidity alongside a generous variety of large beetles, mosquitoes, frogs
and various sundry “creatures.”
The conditions there gave them a healthy appreciation for
the comforts of home and the realization that keeping one’s teeth
is much easier when one has access to dental materials.
“It probably makes you grateful for the things you
take for granted,” Marilyn said.
However, she’d go again in a heartbeat, even though
it was very hard work. She and Gary enjoyed working with the other volunteers
on the humanitarian mission.
“We enjoy meeting people who are so selfless that they
just give and give and give,” she said.
One doctor in particular who lives in the Amazon basin learned from the Cornforths how better to care for the dental needs in that area. They continue to correspond with that doctor and help in the process of sending more dental supplies into that area.
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