LLU&MC Scope Autumn 2000-Learning Through Service

Learning through service

SIMS and ADRA team up to provide dental and medical care

Situated on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Repubic has an area approximately two times the size of New Hampshire with rugged highlands and mountains dotted with fertile valleys. According to the World Factbook, published by the U.S. government, 25 perent of the citizens of the Dominican Repubic live below the poverty line and 14 percent are unemployed.

SIMS volunteers take a moment to pose for a photo in front of a colmado, a store that sells food items and toiletries. The store is located next to a temporary clinic where they provided dental and medical care to some of the Dominican Republic's poorest citizens.

Sensing a need for some of the country's poorest citizens to receive dental and medical care, Adventist Development and Relief Agency-Dominican Republic (ADRA), teamed up recently with students and faculty from LLUs Students for International Mission Service (SIMS) to provide much-needed care.

Ronald E. Fritz, DDS, MPH, assistant professor of dental educational services, School of Dentistry, has worked extensively with SIMS. On short notice, when needed, Dr. Fritz joins teams of dental students as they treat patients in El Hongo, Mexico.

When asked by Juan Carlos Belliard, MPH, SIMS program director, if he would coordinate and supervise the dental students traveling to the Dominican Republic during spring break, he was delighted. "After speaking with representatives from ADRA," says Dr. Fritz, "it was our intention to treat the most critical cases, and to provide health education and consults."

For this reason, the group provided instruments, medication, and anesthetics, but did not take any of the heavier equipment or handpieces.

Several months before the LLU group was scheduled to arrive, ADRA workers assessed the outlying areas and decided where care was most needed. Many of the residents in the outlying towns do not own automobiles and cannot afford a taxi ride to town to access health care.

Several sites were selected, a different one for each day. One area was one-and-a-half hours from Santo Domingo.

Because the area is so remote and clinic space not available, temporary dental clinics would be opened in several Seventh-day Adventist churches and an Adventist school.

Before seeing patients, SIMS volunteers set up and organize a clinic in a local school. Pictured, from left, are Christopher Ehrbright and Cherisse Loo (back to camera), fourth-year dental students; Dominican students Yeritza Jaquez and Silveliza Gonzalez; and Shannon Oh and Jared Nation, who have just begun their third year of dental school.

Local Seventh-day Adventist pastors notified members of their churches and the local community that a team of volunteers from the United States offering dental and medical care would soon arrive.

Home for the volunteers during their stay was Universidad Adventista Dominicana. The university is located in the town of Bonao, an hour-and-a-half north of Santo Domingo. The volunteers slept in the dorms and ate in the cafeteria with the local students.

Each morning Carlos Reyes, a financial officer with ADRA, distributed numbered cards to those who wanted to be examined. The patients ranged from toddlers to seniors-though most were children.

"Seven members of the group spoke Spanish," says Dr. Fritz, "making patient rapport much easier."

Under Dr. Fritzs direction, the students examined patients, administered anesthesia, and extracted teeth that were damaged beyond repair.

In addition to providing dental care, the students worked with parents of young children. "Some of the teaching was done one-on-one," says Dr. Fritz. "At times the students would speak with several parents, telling them that their children's teeth would be healthier and cavities would be avoided if they discouraged their children from eating sugary or refined foods between meals. The students emphasized that eating a papaya or mango is a much more healthful afternoon snack than eating cookies or candy."

One afternoon the group toured a dental school in Santo Domingo. Yeritza Jaquez, a third-year Dominican dental student (now in her fourth year), asked to join the Loma Linda group, and treated patients during the remainder of the trip.

ADRA, working with local Seventh-day Adventist pastors, selected sites where dental care was needed. Each morning the waiting rooms were full of patients, many of them children.

The medical students took histories, recorded blood pressures, and distributed medication for the treatment of parasites. In addition to Renan Moretta Sr., MD (a Domin ican physician practicing in Puerto Rico), and his son, Renan Moretta Jr., RPh, a Dominican pharmacist living in Boston, and a local Red Cross physician volunteered with the students.

"The line of patients was non-ending," remembers Dr. Fritz. "The number of patients we could treat was only limited by time. The students continued treating patients until all of the time was used."

During his stay, Dr. Fritz met a dentist in the city of Bonao who is studying to be baptized. He hopes to keep his private practice, and to help establish and donate time to a four-chair clinic adjacent to the university that will provide much-needed services to those who cannot afford on going dental care.

Dental students who spent their spring break in the Dominican Republic were Christopher Ehrbright, Chad Kim brough, Cherisse Loo, Edward Lopez, Jackie Tran, Jared Nation, Shannon Oh, Eric Park, and Jennifer Park. The medical and public health team included Dr. Moretta and his son, Renan; Keren Espinoza, and medical students Karen De la Cruz, Leesha Hoilette, Marlo Murray-Jackson, Paul Larson, Lily Mendoza, and Tescha Pragasam.

"Thinking about these special students," emphasizes Dr. Fritz, "brings to mind several adjectives-committeed, courteous, unselfish, willing, playful, consistent, accepting, adaptable, and Christ-like."

Dr. Fritz understands that the many hours of study required to become proficient in ones field sometimes may seem dreary. But while serving in the Domini can Republic, the students were able to feel the pure joy that is experienced when skills they have learned touch someones life.

"Though many of the group returned to attend classes at Loma Linda with sore necks and backs from the many hours of hard work," says Dr. Fritz, "many have expressed that they also returned with warm hearts that came from knowing they had helped fill a need."

[Scope, Autumn 2000]