Eye opening. Humbling. Inspiring.
Fourth-year DMD students at the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine all used these same adjectives to describe the International Elective Externship program to students, residents, faculty, and staff who gathered on Monday, April 29, 2019, to learn about the students’ experiences.
In 2018-2019, 25 students participated in 10 trips to five countries on two continents, worked in vastly different communities, from mountain towns in Guatemala to cities in Kenya. Yet many of the students found that they shared similar experiences providing oral healthcare to their patients around the world.
The International Elective Externship program offers fourth-year predoctoral students and residents an opportunity to visit developing countries to apply the knowledge and patient care skills they have gained at GSDM, in a more independent setting, with supervision, support, and guidance available from preceptors.
During their presentations, most students touched upon the fact that oral healthcare is very different in other parts of the world. Nicole Buzzi DMD 19 recalled learning to work in “less than ideal” circumstances—in the dark and in the rain, with patients sitting in a lawn chair—in Guatemala. Grant Gleason said that many of the patients he saw in Kenya had never seen a dentist in their life.
“It just serves as a reminder, how lucky we are in the United States,” Erica Janik DMD 19 said as she recounted her time providing oral healthcare in rural Panama with Northeast Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (NEVOSH).
Some highlights from this year’s experiences:
- Alexander Foor DMD 19 sported embroidered scrubs for the presentation—a souvenir from his time in Comitancillo, a small town in Guatemala. Foor traveled to Central America as part of Dentistry for All, a Canadian organization. Patients traveled up to 30 miles to be seen by dentists at the clinic. “It motivates you to kick your treatment into high gear,” Foor said of the experience.
- Five GSDM students—Melissa Anderson, Harry Lee, Katelyn Quan, Jenna Swotinsky, and Le Zhang, all DMD 19—traveled to Honduras as part of three different mission trips run by CAPE Cares. The organization returns to Honduras three times a year, which allows it to provide follow-up care. “It makes me thankful for what I do,” Le Zhang said during the presentation.
- Before her mission work in Teacapan, Mexico, Sierra DeMarree DMD 19 did not feel comfortable treating children, but her immersion into a pediatric dentistry clinic, under the leadership of pediatric dentists from Project Stretch, provided her with guidance and techniques to help treat anxious young patients. She and six other GSDM students—Lindsay Albino, Alexandra Ortega-Arguello, Divya Puri, Anisha Uppal, Amanda Haar, and Alyssa Sullivan, all DMD 29—were part of a team who treated 800 patients on two separate trips.
- Grant Gleason and Matthew Orlando, both DMD 19, became the first GSDM students to do an externship in Africa when they traveled to Kenya with Bridge to Health. In total, the providers on the trip saw between 100-150 patients a day, many of whom had never seen a dentist before. “It’s a long day, but completely worth it,” Gleason said of his time in Kenya with Bridge to Health.
- As part of the LIGA international team, Nicole Buzzi DMD 19 and six other GSDM students—Marla Fleming, Ellen Kim, Joseph Nore, Sara Satin, Neda Shahrabi, and Samuel Ustayev, all DMD 19—provided oral healthcare for the people of Poptun, in northern Guatemala, on two separate trips. The students saved as many teeth as possible with restorations on the 287 people they provided care, and for the first year, provided endodontic treatment on anterior teeth.
- Erica Janik, Brian Nadeau, and Joanne Thomas, all DMD 19, embarked on a trip to Panama, run by NEVOSH. Janik said that the trip taught her and her fellow students to be independent and to think outside of the box. “We were never short of patients,” she said.
Upon conclusion of the presentations, Dean Jeffrey W. Hutter praised Dr. Michelle Henshaw, associate dean for Global & Population Health for all she did in making this year’s International Elective Externship program a great success. He then presented the students with certificates recognizing their participation in the program.
“On behalf of the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, I thank you for your service,” Dean Hutter said. “You should be proud of what you’ve done, and continue to do—it means very much to each individual you treated.”