U.S. Army runs dental clinics in Orange Walk
There are smiles all around in the Orange Walk district tonight following a two-week humanitarian exercise by the U.S. Army. The kids are happy because their teeth are fixed. And the soldiers? Belize is a whole lot friendlier than Iraq.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
By Friday over five thousand primary school children in the Orange Walk District will have received preventative care by a group of visiting dentists from the United States Army Reserve Unit. The clinics which started a week ago have been seeing the children inside the multiple purpose complex building in Orange Walk Town. The free service is provided through the joint U.S and BDF military exercise dubbed “New Horizons”. According to the local coordinator and senior dental surgeon Dr. Carl Meggs the contribution is very significant because it is providing treatments to a large number of students that could not be handled through the school dental programme by the Ministry of Health.
Dr. Carl Meggs, Senior Dental Surgeon
“If you be practical about it, each district has one dental district officer except Belize City that has three. If you look at the population size, we will take Orange Walk School population size, take the population on a whole in Orange Walk which is about thirty thousand people, it is not mathematically possible for that one person to serve that population.”
“We are doing curative treatments, preventative treatments; that is something under no circumstances that we could offer, when I say we, the Ministry of Health from the dental department. We have a school programme with education in the schools but the curative part there is no way we could handle that kind of patient load in this lifetime.”
One costly treatment the children have been receiving free of cost is a plastic coating called sealant that basically protects the molars that are used to for grinding food when chewing.
Dr. Carl Meggs
“If we could get every child with sealants that in itself give them about fifteen years where they can go cavity free with their molars that they have develop from they are six years old.”
Dr. Meggs says because children have a difficult time keeping their molars clean, the sealants which can each cost as much as fifty dollars are essential.
Dr. Carl Meggs
“If you are to do a survey, which we did from the dental department, most adults in Belize would tell you that they do not have their first molars, those are the molars that they have when they are six years old. So by the time you are fifteen, eighteen years old most Belizeans have had those teeth extracted.”
Besides applying sealants, the dentists have also been cleaning teeth and giving the children fluoride treatments. The medical team has been trying to stay away from pulling teeth but they have had to do some extractions. According to U.S Army Reservist, Lt. Col, Doctor Glen Garland the call to Belize was one welcomed because periodically they are sent to serve in far less peaceful environments.
Lt. Col. Dr. Glen Garland, Member, U.S Army Reserve Dental Corps
“Right, Right where they are shooting at us for sure. I know that three of us, for sure, have been to Iraq, maybe more. A couple of our dentists have been to Kosovo. We might have someone that’s been to Afghanistan so we get called up as needed. Our normal role is to stay in the States and we train at our home units one weekend a month and about two weeks in the summer.”
Dr. Carl Meggs
“This is the first time the U.S. Military has sent a complete dental group into any foreign country. Usually when you hear the Horizons and stuff or you hear dental, it’s dental, medical, VET, everybody come together. This is the first time that they have sent out just dental.”
These army reservists are on their two week tour for 2007. Following their dental care the children all received dental hygiene kits.
