Dentistry in Peru

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Today we were picked up by Patty, a member of Mundo Verde who took us to a school in a rural area. The area didn't look very rural as it was located on an ample street. There were large gates we knocked on to gain entry. We met Francesca, a peruvian dentist who was waiting in what looked like an empty classroom with stacked benches and a sink. Francessca had set up a bench for us with paper towels, and a few instruments (mirror, excavator and spatula) as well as sheets For charting.

The school children began turning up, all excited to see us! 2 foreign strangers who were going to check their teeth and give them gifts-toothbrushes! We now felt the rural status of the school, dirty and worn uniforms, dried but smily faces looked up at us shouting 'hola' as we tried to assemble them in some sort of queue. At this stage we weren't very confident in our dental spanish so was wasn't easy.

We spent the morning charting teeth and caries, applying fluoride, placing GIC in carious decid teeth and extracting teeth that were of very poor prognosis, ie very decayed.

Carrying out Extractions was quite the challenge Without a proper dental chair. And what we really found difficult was the language barrier, we forgot to learn empathy and positive reinforcement in Spanish! This was bad because Most of the were experiencing Local Anaesthetic and extractions for the first tiMe and we weren't able to use our communication skills to get them through it. luckily Francessca took over with this side of things, but still it just didn't feel right. Homework for that evening-learn empathetic dental language for kids!



There were only about 15 hand mirrors which we washed (with cold water) and reused as there were lots of patients. We saw about 15patients each And It was very tiring.



Be back when we have learnt more Spanish!

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