Dental Service Abroad?

[CleverThought]

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Any one gone abroad to volunteer and give dental care abroad? Where did you go and what agency did you go through? I'm really interested and my school study abroad office doesn't know all too much.

 

[cottonschwab217]

Careful with this kind of stuff. Most admissions offices are really big on ethics, and it's not very ethical to be going to other countries and actually performing dental procedures if you do not have the proper training. It's almost like you are going out and practicing on people in third world countries because it is illegal to do anything like that here. Your hearts in the right place, but I would stay far away from anything where you are actually doing procedures.

 

[bluepills]

Any one gone abroad to volunteer and give dental care abroad? Where did you go and what agency did you go through? I'm really interested and my school study abroad office doesn't know all too much.

I went to Costa Rica and Panama through International Service Learning. Another good organization is Vida Volunteer. Both Vida and ISL do dental-focused trips. Such a good experience. Just say no to the solo hands-on stuff, if the doctors give you the chance to try stuff on your own.

 

[Doc Smile]

I went to Costa Rica and Panama through International Service Learning. Another good organization is Vida Volunteer. Both Vida and ISL do dental-focused trips. Such a good experience. Just say no to the solo hands-on stuff, if the doctors give you the chance to try stuff on your own.

I similarly did International Service Learning in conjunction with my nursing school/pre-med students at my university. I was the only pre-dent who went and there was quite a bit of dentistry done.

While there is a strong debate over ethics of medical mission trips, it is not as serious as the above person posted. Its not like you are just handed a bob parker, syringe, and high speed and let loose... You have a trained dentist guiding you in things like - placing amalgam restorations, using a pereosteal elevator during an extraction, or maybe, maybe, maybe giving an injection with close supervision (I only gave an injection on a pre-med student/friend).

There is a greater ethical dilemma surrounding the actual trips themselves - making a small community forego routine care in the anticipation of the white saviors to come down from the US and do the work for free.

 

[CleverThought]

Careful with this kind of stuff. Most admissions offices are really big on ethics, and it's not very ethical to be going to other countries and actually performing dental procedures if you do not have the proper training. It's almost like you are going out and practicing on people in third world countries because it is illegal to do anything like that here. Your hearts in the right place, but I would stay far away from anything where you are actually doing procedures.

I wouldn't imagine that educating them about proper hygiene techniques would be unethical? The impression I got from the sites I have looked at thus far is that you cannot do any skills unless you have been properly trained.