Dental Clinic
 

Excerpted from Juan Carlos' Mission Report

Meanwhile, back at the clinic, things seemed to be going well to start with. Our group has a lot of capable and experienced people, so the fact that the director wasn’t there was not a problem. Each area (eye, medical, dental, optical, mobility, language, general clinic) had a team leader, who basically handled everything—thanks to Larry Ginsburg, Joe England, John Kerwin, Larry Ulm, Al Amerigian, Ed Greenan, and Marie Rondeau for doing that.

After breakfast, we went to the clinic site. This year we were fortunate, as the school we used for the clinic was walking distance (about 1 mile/1.6 kilometers) from the hotel. We were able to cut down on clinic expenses by not having to rent a bus to transport us to the clinic site and back. Those people unwilling to walk were able to take a taxi for three Nicaraguan cordobas (about 20 cents) each. This year the school was like no other we had seen in the past. This was actually a pre-university school. It was far larger and more developed than we expected. There was a large indoor auditorium where our eyeglasses and wheelchairs were dispensed. A cafeteria was available for our lunch break. There was a library (with quite a few books) where our dental clinic operated, though there was some open space there—the team did not work between the stacks. There were more than enough classrooms for all of our examiners to work. There was a gate at the entrance to the clinic that was manned by the national police, which we used to monitor patient flow. Our pharmacy was in a little nook between the exam rooms and the entrance/exit, and looked a little bit like a bar.

Once we arrived at the clinic, we began setting up our rooms. Normally we place most of the chairs outside of our rooms for the patients to sit on. However, the principal of the school did not let us leave chairs out overnight, lest they get stolen. Never mind that we had thousands of dollars of equipment and medications there—the chairs were what she was afraid of having stolen. Así es Nicaragua. Besides that, we arranged our exam rooms, and put up black plastic to darken the eye examiners’ rooms. The medications in the pharmacy were organized, and many pills were divided into individual portions to allow for easier dispensing later on. The dental group organized their equipment, which included for the first time a portable dental chair and equipment to perform some procedures. Our wheelchairs and braces were put into place for easy dispensing. The eyeglass dispensary was organized. We brought 13,000 pairs of glasses, and they were arranged so that proper eyewear could be found quickly when needed. 

Read more of Juan Carlos' Mission Report

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“The dental group was eating lunch in the cafeteria, which was the normal rice and beans. Ty Dean wanted a different meal, so Tom Geruso told him to go up and grab a pizza. I then said that they have two kinds, pepperoni and plain, and that I would stay away from the pepperoni. He jumps out of his seat and goes to the line and asks for a plain pizza. Needless to say, they looked at him like he had two heads.” Frank Casarella