Bob Loblaw

San Blas...DAY 2

TIME TO GET TO WORK! Our first day of seeing pts started around 7am...well about 5:00am if you count the random roosters, wild dogs, and other animals as a wake-up call! I really felt like i got the best of both worlds while we worked in the clinic. I loved being a dental assistant before i finished dental hygiene school.Because there were only 3 chairs i was able to jump in as an assitant to Dr. C for a lot of the time and also do cleanings where they were needed. Camie saw pts that only wanted cleanings, but if she saw that they needed other work she'd numb them and send them to us when she finished. We were only able to do certain procedures because of the small time we had there. The majority of pts we saw needed extractions. We also did fillings and cleanings. Our routine was just that...very similar on each pt. Either Dr. C or i would numb the pt for the extraction or fill, then while they were getting numb, i'd jump in with the cavitron and blast off as much stuff as possible in about 10-15 minutes! (i didn't bust out many hand scalers) I loved that Dr.C would jump in with the high speed suction and help me because the small suction kept getting clogged from the big pieces of tartar. (you know a dr. assisting a rdh NEVER happens in real life!) There were people that could have qualified to be board patients right and left! These people had the kind of tartar that us crazy hygienists love to clean! Sorry for all you non-dental readers, this stuff won't make you salivate!! ha ha ha This little girl in the yellow is Anna. She's 9. She was our translator!! I can't tell you how ADORABLE (and tiny) she is. Her dad is a preacher, they are from Georgia and have been living in Mexico for like 6 years...it kinda sounded like they were on a mission type thing for their church. Anna was as smart as they come! She was fluent in English and Spanish. She's been volunteering in the dental clinic for the past couple of years. She had never actually helped though as far as procedures go. I asked her if she wanted to put on some gloves and assist? She was all over that! She was wiping down the chair, getting the next pt, asking their problem...she even diagnosed this one guy! He said his gums were bleeding, so she proceeded to tell him he had "gum disease" and he needed to brush better, then she handed him a "cepilla" (toothbrush)! A total future hygienist, huh? She cracked me up!
She told us she felt like she wasn't even missing school because she was learning so much while she was there! Anna's dad was translating in the clinic with the foot doctor. Anna says feet are gross so she stayed with us the whole day, then i got to clean her teeth before she left. She was such a doll; i totally would have brought her home with me if it was possible! Now look really close in this next pic...yep, those are forceps in my hand! I extracted my first tooth in Mexico...i extracted my 2nd and 3rd while i was there too! Dr.C was very nice to let me experience procedures that i normally wouldn't in the states! That was pretty cool! A lot of the Mexican people just want teeth extracted when they have a cavity instead of a filling. It's a different type of dentistry there, that's for sure! So this tooth had a cavity, other than that the bone levels were normal...it took some work, but i did it! You can see, i'm pretty proud of my work! ha ha ha (Hey Brett, i got to ext a tooth before you did!!!) The pic on the right is of the kitchen/ feast area! I'm not sure how many volunteers stayed here, but i'm guessing 30+. We had all our meals here. These fabulous ladies from the community who had the time and means to feed us cooked 3 meals/day. (they were from some of the higher class families). They were so nice. We'd all come in shifts for the most part, sit down and they'd serve us. I am a little picky with foreign food, but everything i tried was pretty good! It's definitely authentic! This was my favorite meal. Inside the taco shell was grated potatoes--no meat. There were onions, lettuce, carrots and cucumbers on top, with fresh mexican lime juice squeezed on the vegetables...very light and refreshing! I wish i could have brought back some mexican limes...they were different than ours....SOOOO good!
My other favorite was a vegetable soup with pasta noodles for lunch one day that was really good, but hot soup isn't as refreshing in 100 degree weather! The other translator for the dental clinic was an older man named Juan. He was a sweetheart. I'm not quite sure how old he is. I would guess 60, maybe even early 70's, but it's really hard to tell with some of the Mexican people.
Most of their skin is pretty weathered and they look a lot older than they are. Juan lives about 5 blocks from the clinic. He asked us if we'd like to see his house...so we went for a walk into town after our long day (8am-7:30pm) in the clinic. Juan's house was actually not typical of the others around it. It was a lot larger, and nicer.
He lives alone, but had about 15 people staying with him that night from about 80 miles away that would be coming to the clinic the next day. I don't think they were relatives, probably just acquaintances. He was very generous. When we got to his house there was some creature that crawled out from under a pile of wood...it was big enough and ugly enough that i let out a scream! I had never seen anything like it...it looked like a GIANT rat. The next day Juan figured out what it was in English...it was an oppossum. UGLY! I wasn't able to get a good pic from outside because it was dark by the time we got there. This pic of Camie and me is in Juan's house, just inside the front door. I don't think most houses there even have stairs to an extra level, let alone linoleum covering the floors. Juan used to work in the states, i can't remember what he did, but obviously he did well for himself. Camie cracked me up...i looked over at her when we got in bed and she had this surgical hair net over her face...apparently it doubles as a bug net! We got a good laugh out of that one!

posted by Jami @ 5:00 PM