Frequently Asked Question about Dental Brigades:
Q: I’m a pre-dental student interested in getting volunteer experience. Can the Global Dental Brigade program help me?
A: Global Dental Brigade offers dental and pre-dental students hands-on, real world experience in the field of dentistry in remote communities and Central America where we focus. We establish, in conjunction with Global Medical Brigade program, we establish mobile dental and medical clinics where we treat more than forty thousand patients a year in rural areas that do not have access to dentists or doctors otherwise. Dentistry is one of the huge, largest problems, public health epidemic problem in Honduras and the villages that we work with. Where a dentist is — note that over ninety percent of the people have cavities where 80% of the population has no access to any type of dentistry. And where is essentially one dentist for every ten thousand people in the country as is.
Q: Can you tell me more about how I might get specific hands-on experiences? What kinds of things might I be doing as a member of the Global Dental Brigade?
A: As a member of the Global Dental Brigade you participate in a one week dental brigade opportunity in Central America, where we will partner you up with communities to perform dental clinics. On the brigade itself, you’ll be providing urgent dental care and preventive workshops. Volunteers will be able to shadow licensed dentists who do extractions, cleanings on children, fill cavities and perform operations, and to assist them in workshops. Every dental and pre-dental student would have the opportunity to shadow each of those procedures.
Q: Wow! That’s very, very exciting. Is there also a community for me to participate in dental education?
A: Before and after the brigade we offer workshops for the students on basic dental preparations and dentistry needs within the community and how to give and practice giving the procedures before they go out into the field. So there is a level of dental education specific to the Honduran community that we serve and practical for dentists as they begin their profession. I stress the one other aspect is the high, high need within the community that is very much the highest needed service that we, as an organization, give where people will often walk all evening, all night from the day before if they know that there is a dentist coming out to their village. The tooth decay and the symptoms of the dental hygienic problem are found as an effect in [inaudible] higher health system of the patient and this problem is seen almost as an epidemic within the communities that we’re working in.
Q: Do I need any special experience before I can participate in a dental brigade?
A: The Global Dental Brigade offer opportunities for people on varying degrees of dental experience. If you’re a pre-dental student, you have the opportunity to see nearly every aspect of the dental brigade and do not need any prerequisite other than what you currently have been undergoing as a pre-dent and the passion for dentistry. If you are a licensed dentist, obviously there are more things you’ll be able to actually conduct during the dental brigade, more procedures and operations that you’ll be able to facilitate. But every student interested in dentistry has a very strong and important role within the dental brigade and a very large learning opportunity for you to be able practice dental skills in the community.
Q: Can students perform teeth extractions?
A: No, based on feedback from the American Dental Association, Global Brigades switched its policy to not allow for students to perform any teeth extractions or even fluoride treatments on patients. In the past, based on Honduran law and local dental professionals’ enthusiasm to instruct students, we had previously allowed volunteers to assist dentists in extractions. Unlicensed volunteers still have the opportunity to observe licensed dentists and learn about the procedures.
Q: Is it safe?
A: There is risk associated with any international travel and community work. Risk experts within the international volunteer industry approximate that an organization may experience one catastrophic incidence such as death or permanent injury for every 100,000 volunteer months spent in-country. Most common are from car accidents and or extra-curricular activities participated in outside of programming. Each Global Brigades grantee entity in Honduras, Panama and Ghana have a strong track for risk practices and do regular staff meetings to ensure emergency policies are known by every coordinator.
A: Global Dental Brigade offers dental and pre-dental students hands-on, real world experience in the field of dentistry in remote communities and Central America where we focus. We establish, in conjunction with Global Medical Brigade program, we establish mobile dental and medical clinics where we treat more than forty thousand patients a year in rural areas that do not have access to dentists or doctors otherwise. Dentistry is one of the huge, largest problems, public health epidemic problem in Honduras and the villages that we work with. Where a dentist is — note that over ninety percent of the people have cavities where 80% of the population has no access to any type of dentistry. And where is essentially one dentist for every ten thousand people in the country as is.
Q: Can you tell me more about how I might get specific hands-on experiences? What kinds of things might I be doing as a member of the Global Dental Brigade?
A: As a member of the Global Dental Brigade you participate in a one week dental brigade opportunity in Central America, where we will partner you up with communities to perform dental clinics. On the brigade itself, you’ll be providing urgent dental care and preventive workshops. Volunteers will be able to shadow licensed dentists who do extractions, cleanings on children, fill cavities and perform operations, and to assist them in workshops. Every dental and pre-dental student would have the opportunity to shadow each of those procedures.
Q: Wow! That’s very, very exciting. Is there also a community for me to participate in dental education?
A: Before and after the brigade we offer workshops for the students on basic dental preparations and dentistry needs within the community and how to give and practice giving the procedures before they go out into the field. So there is a level of dental education specific to the Honduran community that we serve and practical for dentists as they begin their profession. I stress the one other aspect is the high, high need within the community that is very much the highest needed service that we, as an organization, give where people will often walk all evening, all night from the day before if they know that there is a dentist coming out to their village. The tooth decay and the symptoms of the dental hygienic problem are found as an effect in [inaudible] higher health system of the patient and this problem is seen almost as an epidemic within the communities that we’re working in.
Q: Do I need any special experience before I can participate in a dental brigade?
A: The Global Dental Brigade offer opportunities for people on varying degrees of dental experience. If you’re a pre-dental student, you have the opportunity to see nearly every aspect of the dental brigade and do not need any prerequisite other than what you currently have been undergoing as a pre-dent and the passion for dentistry. If you are a licensed dentist, obviously there are more things you’ll be able to actually conduct during the dental brigade, more procedures and operations that you’ll be able to facilitate. But every student interested in dentistry has a very strong and important role within the dental brigade and a very large learning opportunity for you to be able practice dental skills in the community.
Q: Can students perform teeth extractions?
A: No, based on feedback from the American Dental Association, Global Brigades switched its policy to not allow for students to perform any teeth extractions or even fluoride treatments on patients. In the past, based on Honduran law and local dental professionals’ enthusiasm to instruct students, we had previously allowed volunteers to assist dentists in extractions. Unlicensed volunteers still have the opportunity to observe licensed dentists and learn about the procedures.
Q: Is it safe?
A: There is risk associated with any international travel and community work. Risk experts within the international volunteer industry approximate that an organization may experience one catastrophic incidence such as death or permanent injury for every 100,000 volunteer months spent in-country. Most common are from car accidents and or extra-curricular activities participated in outside of programming. Each Global Brigades grantee entity in Honduras, Panama and Ghana have a strong track for risk practices and do regular staff meetings to ensure emergency policies are known by every coordinator.