Timo, Pt 2

Early morning, May 6.

After arriving in Timo Friday evening, we immediately started setting the clinic up for Saturday.  We had a full day scheduled and so we had to organize all our supplies and materials, see what had been left by previous groups, and figure out our sleeping arrangements.  The second half of our contingent arrived a couple of hours after us and they pitched right in to help.  

People began lining up around 3 or 4 in the morning!  They were right outside the building and between them and the roosters it was a noisy early morning.  The old hands brought earplugs.  Before they could enter the clinic, they had to go through registration and dental education.  The Haitian helpers organized this part of the process.  The selection process favored Timo and the surrounding area, but we also saw people from other areas.
The people to the left of the clinic door are those who have completed the first part of the process.

Patients were admitted four or five at a time to triage.  Here the examining dentist and assistant did a brief exam and xrays, focusing on the highest priority problems.  Abcesses, broken teeth and decay in the upper front six teeth were the top attention getters.

Here Matt and Ashleigh do the examining while Princess (actually her name is Lauryka Sarah, but because Sarah means "princess" that's what I called her.  Her mother did, too!) recores the xrays on the computer.

From triage the patients went to hygiene, where our three capable hygienists, Ilene, Madison, and Nisa cleaned their teeth. They had two ultrasonic scalers between the three of them, so one was always hand scaling.

Here's view from the far end of the clinic, with gray-haired yours truly bent over a patient.  We had four benches for the patients to lie on.  The bench was too high for me to sit comfortably, and too low to really stand, so I did a lot of stooping!  With five dentists, four could each have a bench and the fifth manned triage.

My assistant, Sandy, works for Dr. Gifford in Page.  She was a great help and good to work with.

After treatment, we would mark their card with the treatment performed and then send them to the pharmacy where they would get Tylenol or Ibuprofen and/or antibiotics if indicated.

Dr. Dickson's son, Preston, came along and performed an outstanding job as a lab tech.  He made several flippers and fixed several dentures.  He is surrounded by locals learning the process.

Finally, the green cards are given to the data processing team and they compile the number of fillings, exts, types of fillings, varnishes, cleanings, and any other dentally related work,

The end of every work day (which was basically every day from Saturday through Wednesday, with a half-day Sunday from 7am to 5 or 6pm) was marked by a staff meeting attended by us and Haitian staff alike.  It was conducted by Rene, the village head man, or mayor, or whatever the term is, and he went through all the organizations from registration, to dental education, triage, hygiene, dentists, pharmacy, lab, data entry, translators, security, the cooks, the electrician, etc.  He conducted the business in Haitian Creole with the help of translators.

The end of every day found us out on the patio enjoying the view and rehashing the days events and just generally hanging out.