Surgery and Healing in the Developing World - Dartmouth-Hitchcock

Outreach Dentistry
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place” than, for example, radiology, and the practitioner is less dependent on an
intact team and system around him or her
Extractive services are often needed in high volume, and can be carried out successfully
in short-term missions (Fig. 9). The kinds of oral pathology seen include
inflammatory, neoplastic and congenital (Fig. 8). Because of the late stages in which
many of the diseases present, extractive services are in high demand. But some restorative
services are also possible, and fit particularly well in an educational program
in which someone is trained to follow up n the techniques used in on-the-job
training (Fig. 2).
Figure 4. A primitive, but quite functional
dental suite can be put together from the
obsolete products of First World dental
practices, as seen here in the mechanical
dental chair set up in the Congo when it
was no longer useful in the United States.
However castoffs with microchips embedded,
or non-replaceable fuses, valves,
circuits or dependence on maintenance
or electrical reliability are often more like
“White Elephants” that encumber practice,
as well as being very expensive to
arrive at their destination as long-distance
trash disposal.
Figure 3. A low-overhead no-frills office is often
encountered, as in this street scene of a
Tibetan dentist in operation at an intersection
curbside.
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