Day 7 Orphanage at Battambang

Another early start.  Unfortunately, we do have a bug going through our group.  Some people are way down, others a little. Gloria and I stay with the Cipro and aren’t real adventurous with our food selections.  For us, so far, so good.

Another very nice orphanage, but the kids had worse teeth.  We are starting to sense, the closer we get to Phnom Penh, (civilization) the worse the teeth. I am sure it is a diet thing. 

The picture of the little girl below has quite a story behind it.  When we arrived, she latched on to one of the team members and wouldn’t let go of his hand.  She is only three, but dressed in a very cute dress, with “pearls” on, and bracelets.  A real looker.  But, when it was her turn for the dental exam, we discovered that all her upper front teeth were decayed to the gum line and they were infected; so they had to come out. 

She has been our only patient we didn’t treat in a chair. We got a table in the pharmacy, numbed her up, held her down, shut the door and pulled out her infected teeth.  A bit noisy, but she did fine.  I think the pharmacy team members were more traumatized then she was. 

Note:  we did see her romping around in the afternoon, like nothing had happened!

The dental students really kicked it in to high gear today.  At any one time we were treating 6 or 7 patients.  I did more supervising and less treating for the first time. 

We did learn today why many people only want fillings and not extractions.  Apparently there is a legend that many believe that states if you have a tooth removed, you will go blind!  That explains why when I ask the dental student to tell the patient they need a tooth extracted, it would take them a long, long time to discuss it with the patient.  The primary religion is Hindu, but most people believe in evil spirits more than anything.

Six of the students working away!

Got a feeling what a hurricane (typhoon, down here) feels like today.  A rain squall came  through in the morning that was not only so noisy hitting the metal roof, but frightening in its intensity.  It sounded like hail, but it was just large raindrops.  Wind wasn’t bad, but we were told that this part of Central Asia is still drying out from the two typhoons that went through about a month ago.

The students horsing around while I am trying to get some work done.