In Canada, there are 62 dentists working in dentistry per 100,000 people. This is a stark contrast to Haiti where approximately 300 dentists serve the entire country of just over 10 million people. In the Croix-des-Bouquets area where the clinic that EMI serves, we are not aware of any dentists working.
During five days In October 2018, Dr. Awadalla brought smiles to the faces of 80 people at the Croix des Bouquets clinic. Those smiles brought joy to everyone at the clinic. As you can imagine, the line-up for the dentist was longer than we could serve and unfortunately, we had to send many people home without getting the dental care they needed.
While the clinic does have a patient room dedicated to dental work and two working dental chairs, dental equipment such as compressors for drilling and suction do not exist. In 2018 we originally thought that our dental team would be limited to performing primarily tooth extractions and pain alleviation. But, EMI was able to borrow a portable dental kit for Dr. Awadalla to use from a local Haitian dentist. With this kit, Dr. Awadalla was able to perform corrective dental treatments such as fillings and cosmetic surgery.
In the future, dentists like Dr. Awadalla will need portable dental kits in order to provide complete dental care to those in Croix-des-Bouquets. Our goal for 2020 is to purchase a new portable dental kit to support our work in Haiti. A new portable dental kit is worth approximately $1,500 and with your assistance, we can expand the dental program at Croix-des-Bouquets to help more families in need and allow our dentists to see more patients. Please click on the donate button and help us reach our goal today.
If you want to meet some of the team members and read about their stories in the dental clinic go to Stories:
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