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2.07.07: Dominican Republic
Dentists Report
This is a
description of our journey as dentists to
the Dominican Republic with the Pujols Family
Foundation's first Operation Smile. It is
difficult to put this experience into words
but we would like very much to share our experience
with everyone. This trip was initiated in
May of 2006 based on Mrs. Pujols' vision of
providing dental care for children in the
Dominican Republic who have never seen a dentist.
We put a dental group together consisting
of two pediatric dentists, two general dentists,
one oral surgeon and one bi-lingual dental
assistant. The next step was to get the necessary
dental equipment and supplies together. Mrs.
Pujols generously purchased two complete portable
dental units (chairs, lights, drill carts,
compressors, vacuum systems, etc.) at the
cost of about $10,000 for this trip. We were
able secure the dental supplies by donations
from the traveling dentists on this team and
dental supply companies which translated to
about $7,500. In the meantime, Mr. and Mrs.
Pujols were working hard to make the necessary
arrangements with local organizers in the
Dominican Republic. For example, the reality
of whether or not there was running water
and electricity was questionable in the villages
that we were going to visit. This required
numerous phone calls and a trip in August
to the Dominican Republic by Mrs. Pujols in
order to make the needed arrangements with
the local organizers. We were nervous as we
got closer to the departure date of January
14, 2007 and were concerned about our ability
to provide good dental care. In dentistry,
there are so many different instruments, materials,
agents, and supplies that are needed to provide
proper dental treatment and there is no Super
Wal-Mart in the Dominican Republic for us
to run to and buy whatever we were missing!
We had a dry run with our equipment and supplies
and packed for the worst and hoped for the
best!
Once we arrived in the D/R,
Mrs. Pujols was waiting for us at the airport
with a small bus to take us to our hotel.
It was good to see a familiar face. We met
the local organizers that Mrs. Pujols had
been working with for the past six months.
We had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Pujols that
evening and Mrs. Pujols went over our itinerary
for the next day, January 15th. It became
part of our routine to have dinner with Mr.
and Mrs. Pujols each night to go over what
we had accomplished that day and have a game
plan for the next day.
Our days usually started before
dawn when the bus would leave the hotel and
return back to the Pujols' house by about
7:30 p.m.for dinner. Both Mr. and Mrs. Pujols
went out with us as early as 5 a.m. to these
villages. They did not have the attitude "you
guys go ahead and we will catch up with you
later"! In fact, on Mr. Pujols' birthday,
he began the day before 5 am and did whatever
was needed to help our team provide dentistry
to the children in the village. On these trips,
Mrs. Pujols ran our sterilization department
for us. We were seeing an average of 162 patients
per day and Mrs. Pujols made sure that we
had a constant flow of sterilized instruments
for our patients. She worked as hard as any
one else on this trip. Each child received
home oral hygiene instruction, toothbrush,
toothpaste, floss and written instructions
about oral health. It was their first exposure
to dental care. Every day, Mr. Pujols was
there to help us communicate with children
and comfort them with their upcoming dental
treatment. He made sure that we had everything
that was needed and even missed going to the
White House so that he could help. This was
truly a team effort.
We would also like to thank
Compassion International, whose workers were
there to help facilitate our efforts. It wouldn't
have been possible to reach so many children
without their help.
A Few Noteworthy Points About
the Trip:
1. Children-They
just wanted to play and be happy and they
appreciated everything they received. With
no X-Box or PS2 games and questionable electricity,
they were able to get along with each other.
Life is very simple in the D/R.
2. Parents- Their
biggest objective is to make it through another
day, fulfilling their parental responsibilities
by providing for their children. They were
very grateful for what we were privileged
to do for their children.
3. Compassion and
tolerance toward their fellow man was one
of the treasures I picked up in the D/R. I
am forever grateful for this.
4. Poverty and disease
do not recognize the boundaries we call borders
on the maps. Just because we do not see it
in our neighborhood does not mean that it
doesn't exist. This is an international condition
and not limited to a specific geographic area.
We all had seen pictures demonstrating the
poverty that people suffer from, but it was
a different experience when we saw it firsthand.
With pictures, we cannot make the personal
connection that our trip enabled us to make.
5. We found both
Mr. and Mrs. Pujols truly committed to their
cause and they are very kind and generous
human beings. We are grateful that they included
us in this worthy project.
6. Most importantly,
LOVE. LOVE made us achieve our goal. This
LOVE brought people of different faiths (Christian,
Jewish and Moslem faiths) together to make
a difference. I wish there was more LOVE in
this world so we can treat each other like
human beings. It's such a wonderful thing
to witness the power of love in action amongst
these seemingly forgotten children in great
need. After all, God not only asks us but
He commands us to love one another - especially
"the least of these".
In conclusion
we saw first-hand how this love that binds
all of the humanity together allowed us to
touch many lives and be touched in return.
We realize that we have received much more
from this experience through the infinite
generosity of love than we were able to give.
We wish that all of us would allow this love
to flow through our actions on a daily basis.
We would all be better for it.
We all look forward to our next year's trip.
Submitted by: Dr.
Mark Fernandez, Dr. Mike Noble, Dr. Cindy
Nouri, Dr. Homer Sedighi, Dr. Richard Snitzer
Click
here for photo slideshow
2007
Dominican Republic Operation Smile Dental
Mission Sponsors
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