{"id":149332,"date":"2019-04-29T11:05:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T15:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=149332"},"modified":"2019-04-29T11:05:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T15:05:46","slug":"dental-students-fill-need-cavities-service-trips-puerto-rico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/04\/dental-students-fill-need-cavities-service-trips-puerto-rico\/","title":{"rendered":"Dental students fill need, and cavities, on service trips to Puerto Rico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published in the Journal Inquirer.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

University of Connecticut dental students moved from sterile offices into historic churches in remote tropical towns twice in the last year, carrying with them cots, folding metal chairs, and portable generators to power their drills to fix the teeth of a population hit hard by Hurricane Maria.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sarita Arteaga, clinical associate professor and associate dental school dean of students, knew it would be bad on Puerto Rico, having talked to her father who still lives on the island. But she said she was surprised at the dearth of medical providers rendering care.<\/p>\n

Students and faculty from the UConn\u2019s School of Dental Medicine visited the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico in May 2018 and in February to provide dental services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know if there would be a lot of need, but unfortunately there was because a lot health care providers have left the island, including dental care providers,\u201d said Arteaga. \u201cPatients were left with appointments where there were no doctors, or they were having trouble finding places to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria hit the island in September 2017, but recovery has been slow and the effects are still being felt, especially in remote communities.<\/p>\n

Arteaga said the service trips to Puerto Rico, along with a third planned for this May, follow a long legacy at the university\u2019s dental school of volunteer missions to Chile, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

One faculty member, Dr. Ronald Albert, has been on more than 20 service missions in his time at the school. Albert also works as a practicing dentist in Manchester.<\/p>\n

The pilot trip to Puerto Rico last May was Arteaga\u2019s first service trip with the UConn dental group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard firsthand from the people there \u2014 my father especially \u2014 about how much they lost and didn\u2019t have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The students and faculty always seek to travel to multiple communities within their service trip\u2019s region. Arteaga said they wake up early to get all of their mobile equipment ready to reach patients in remote communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, the faculty, start by screening patients to triage them and find out what their needs are and then we direct them to the students \u2026 We\u2019ll work until all the patients in line have been served,\u201d she said. \u201cThat could be until 5 or 6:30. If we\u2019re coming back the next day, we try to organize it because we can\u2019t always count on having electricity at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students on another trip to the Dominican Republic once had to spend most of the first day just trying to get generators running. After their originally planned generators failed, local businesses and churches donated their own. This kind of strong positive reaction from the local community is common, Arteaga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody comes together because they realize that the services and the care is donated, and the volunteerism comes out in everyone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dental hygienists also join the trips to provide teeth cleanings. Some of the most common procedures the dentists and students provide are fillings and extractions.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s sometimes end-of-the-line care because they haven\u2019t had the opportunity for care before then,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Arteaga said the trip is a cultural learning opportunity for students as well. Dental student Anjali Dinesh, who was on a service trip to Chile, said it was valuable to be working, learning, and bonding with dental students and patients from another culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe volume of patients we treated allowed us to both hone our skills and meet a wide variety of incredibly friendly and welcoming people,\u201d Dinesh said, adding that what she liked most about her trip was being able to live and work with the Chilean dental students and embrace their culture and language.<\/p>\n

The Connecticut State Dental Association offers grant funding to help support the service missions, but Arteaga said much of the money comes from students holding fundraisers. They then typically cover any difference out of their own pockets, she added.<\/p>\n

Somewhat more locally, the dental school is planning another service trip to remote rural areas of Maine in collaboration with the University of New England\u2019s College of Dental Medicine for this June, Arteaga said.<\/p>\n

Dentists from Connecticut and elsewhere will also be gathering for the 13th annual Mission of Mercy Free Dental Clinic at Windham Middle School this weekend. Doors open at 8 a.m. today and Sunday, and patients will be received on a first-come, first-served basis.<\/p>\n

Dental student Mohaad Faraj of the class of 2020 wrote in a reflection on the trip to Puerto Rico that seeing the patients\u2019 appreciation through charitable work reminded him why he wanted to be a dentist in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was eye-opening to see different dental needs for different social classes and how disparities influence the way patients are treated,\u201d Faraj wrote. \u201cIn addition, it was a humbling experience to see how much more there is for me to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students and faculty from the UConn\u2019s School of Dental Medicine visited Puerto Rico in May 2018 and in February to provide dental services to a population hit hard by Hurricane Maria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":149345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2166],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2177],"class_list":["post-149332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdm"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 18:46:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/149345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149332"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=149332"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=149332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}