Dental Campaigns

 

GMA’s dental projects concentrate equally on oral hygiene, nutrition, education, extractions and restorative work.  Short-term teams of dental professionals travel to Morocco with GMA join with dental professionals in Morocco to offer dental clinics in remote areas of Morocco. Recently, we acquired a used ambulance and converted it into a mobile dental van that will enable us to expand our dental clinics to more remote areas.

GMA seeks to work in areas where there is no dental care available. Once an area is identified, many elements make up a dental campaign for that location. GMA contacts local associations and government authorities and makes agreements with them to conduct the clinics.  We must find adequate facilities in which to conduct the clinics. Supplies arrive from the GMA Tacoma warehouse, are purchased locally or brought in by volunteer workers at the clinics.  Working with local associations, we secure housing for all the volunteers and translators participating in the clinics. 

Often these campaigns require months of detailed planning along with weeks of preparation; and then finally several days of travel. Once everyone is at the clinic site, volunteers sweep floors and move furniture to ensure efficient work areas.  They set up and stock work stations, sterilize instruments, and check the facilities for a reliable flow of electricity.  If this cannot be assured, then we set up generators on the clinic site.  The details seem endless, however, by the first morning of an event everyone and everything is on track and ready to begin serving patients. 

When the clinic begins, there are throngs of patients, ready and waiting outside; and each day the crowd grows.   When the needs are overwhelming, clinic volunteers evaluate each person and prioritize their needs.  Often, dental care providers ask the patient to choose one tooth for treatment so that more people can be seen and treated.  These decisions are difficult for both providers and patients; many patients experience multiple problems and live daily in significant pain.

After planning, preparing, coordinating and working long hours to provide care, the weary teams find great joy and rewards in seeing so many patients’ dental problems resolved.