We would like to share some exciting news wit you all. Dr Bob To is travelling to Guatemala on the 20th of January. He will attend a Dental Seminar and he will take a part in a charity mission.
Dr Bob and a team of 30 dentists from around the world will spend around 5 days looking after local Guatemalan patients who are in acute pain, mostly adults and children with severe toothache. The patients will be cared for free of charge and will receive treatment such as tooth removal, X-rays… together with a prescription of antibiotics and oral health advice.
Together the dentists will need to set up a dental unit in the town called Jutiapa. In order to do that we have asked our dental stock suppliers for donations and I would like to thank them all for their generosity with a special acknowledgement for the enormous – almost £3000 worth of stock from the Dental Directory for which we are deeply grateful ! Oh…and I must not forget to mention that our patients have been very supportive as well – so a massive thank you to you all for that. I hope that Dr Bob’s suitcases will cope with the extra load…
A little bit about Guatemala….
Guatemala is a beautiful country with wonderful landscape, amazing rain forests, volcanoes, spectacular beaches with white sand and ancient stone pyramids constructed many centuries ago by the once-prosperous and advanced Mayan civilization. Yet even with all its natural beauty, Guatemala is still one of the poorest countries on the globe and is struggling to meet the basic needs of its people. 53% of Guatemalans live below the poverty line with 13% of the people living in extreme poverty. The health system is severely lacking and many patients remain untreated and suffer with pain and infection. Many Guatemalans suffer from tooth decay and it is a massive health issue over there. This is due to a lack of dental hygiene, inadequate fluoridation, poor diet and easy access to foods and drinks with high-sugar level content. The dental needs of these people are not met and this is why many Dentists and Doctors are coming in from around the world in the hope of offering the patients aid and treatment. We will keep you up to date with Dr Bob’s dental mission. Hopefully he will be able to send us a few emails while he is there to let us know how he and his colleagues are doing.
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