DENTAL MISSION JULY 2008

With our team of Danish Dentists, and our always faithful team of local dentists from the Cebu Dental Society, plus a "small army" of dedicated assistants and helpers from the local community and other volunteers, we were able to treat a total of 3508 patients during the 4 weeks that the dental mission lasted.

All patients were treated successfully, and all cases finalized.

We restored 872 teeth, and did prophylaxis on 371 patients. In addition to this we were able to check up on and instruct in the correct way of tooth brushing to hundreds of children in the different schools we were at. Unfortunately we had to extract almost 4000 teeth (3907 to be exact), still way too high, and something we hope will become less and less as we get more and more children to participate in the Tooth Brushing program we are pushing in the Elementary Schools and Day Care centers here in the Cebu area.

When school started this last June, we were able to take the first steps to start all the first graders on Maktan Island on the Tooth brushing, health and hygiene program called "The Essential health Care Package" or the EHCP for short. We, and the health sector in general, have great hopes that this, although it will take a few years, will greatly help in avoiding the situation mentioned above where we have to extract such a big amount of teeth, teeth once extracted never grows back.

Please pray with us that the necessary funding will be made available for all the children in the Philippines to participate in the EHCP program and thereby, in time, will have a much better life.
 



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