Pages

Thursday, May 12, 2016

They say it's dental hygiene bootcamp...

After 8 years of creating mash-style units of dental hygiene operatories in San Pancho, creating another one in a room where there is only one electrical outlet to service 6 dental chairs, 6 dental ultrasonic units, 6 portable suctions, and same number of fans seemed very plausible again this year. It took us two hours to scavenge for makeshift dental carts, tables, operator and assistant chairs at the local community centre, Entreamigos.http://entreamigos.org.mx Acquiring six beach lounge chairs from the local restaurant, La Perla has been a godsend, as they make for more comfortable dental chairs than the plastic stackable chairs that we used to use.

It was three days of seeing patients with a variety of conditions, under a challenging environment, but the students rose to the occasion. We tried to complete them all, but time was limited so we did the best we could and addressed the areas that are of most need. Unfortunately, we were unable to provide local anesthesia, to honour our BC restricted practice mandate.

Tomorrow, we begin another gruelling three days. The set-up was quicker the second time around. The students/graduates are now acclimatized to the process. Am excited about the prospect of seeing more, doing more, discovering more, and being challenged during the next session of clinic days. We are lucky to have esteemed and capable instructors like Tika Brown and Shelley Melissa join us this  year. Their assistance and guidance to all have been invaluable.

Only a short ride to the community centre.

Where do things go?

Our "clean" table

Our dental unit.

All students worked in pairs and rotated partners. There was always someone who worked alone because of our odd numbers.

Setting up in unison.

Starting to look like a real dental clinic...;-)

The team is ready to go! Thank you Entreamigos for lending us the sports room.

No comments:

Post a Comment