September 2, 2010

My name is Robert Jungman, and I am a third year at UCLA School of Dentistry. Jennifer Yau, a second year, and I will be updating this blog on our dental mission trip to Guaimaca this September (2010).

In our group of 16, we have 3 dentists, Dr. Jungman (San Diego Private Practice), Dr. Arriola (Temecula Private Practice), and Dr. Patterson (San Leandro Private Practice), and 13 UCLA dental students. They include Nader Nasseri (4th year), Alphonse Ramos (3rd year), Chad Green (3rd year), Greg Shvartsman (3rd year), Jessica Lee (3rd year), Robert Jungman (3rd year), and the following 2nd years: Jennifer Yau, Insoon Chang, Ruth Alvarez, Puja Patel, Giancarlo Santos, Karona Tum, and Jason Hsieh.

We all met at the airport in Los Angeles for our 1:30 am flight (morning of September 1st) on our way to El Salvador and then transferred to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Father Craig and Sister Martha met us at the airport with “El Evangelizador,” the mission’s bus. Because of the massive rains in the area, there were sinkholes in the road on the way back to the mission. We decided to take a detour through the Valley of Angels, where we ate lunch and shopped for souvenirs. The Valley scenery was breathtaking!

By late afternoon, we arrived at the mission, greeted by the various mission friends. We immediately began setting up the clinic in preparation for the next day. Unfortunately, many of our bags got wet from the heavy tropical rains on the way back to the mission. A couple of the cardboard boxes of supplies literally fell apart when unloading them from bus.

On Thursday the 2nd, the clinic opened for our first patients. Many of the second years experienced their first injections and their first operative preparations on live patients. The third years also experienced new things such as very large fillings, extractions, and treatment planning. We also sent a contingent of students (Nader, Chad and Carlo) to an elementary school to screen some of the students there for treatment in our clinic. While they were screening, we treated girls from the mission’s boarding school, who were screened by the students from the June trip. We realized the considerable amount of dental decay that we will have to treat for each patient.

Dr. Patterson did a wonderful job in helping set-up the clinic equipment including the suction units, air compressors, and handpiece attachments. We had 4 chairs plumbed with suction and air pressure, which allowed us to see 17 patients. Most patients needed numerous and extensive restorations with a few patients who needed extractions.

After dinner, our group elected to visit the local supermarket for sodas where we saw the girls from the mission’s boarding school come out of 7 o’clock mass. We joined them back at their school where we received a school tour and learned more about the mission through Sister Martha.

Ever since coming to the mission, we have found the people to be generous and kind. They did an excellent job housing and feeding us, and we are really appreciative. We look forward to our next few days of providing clinical services and helping as many people as we can.