mission trip: ISL or GMT

Started by kevin512
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i went through the international service learning program to both nicaragua and costa rica. It was very pricy but well worth it. Some of the stuff that they let me do were things that you won't see until you go through clinical at D.S. composites,suturing, extracting, hygiene etc. It's real sad to see that oral health care is not a priority in these countries and that some have never owned a tooth brush their whole lives. it was a very good experience and i feel gained a lot out of it. If you have any specifics feel free to PM me.
 
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I went with GMT to Nicaragua for 2 weeks last month, and I have to say that it was well worth it. 22 of us were on the trip, and 4 of us were pre-dental. The rest did med stuff all day, but the 4 of us were able to get some really good hands on experience. We had 7 clinic days for about 7 or 8 hours a day in which we each had a large amount of experience cleaning teeth, restoring teeth with amalgam and composite material, giving injections, and extractions. Dr. Wil Johnson and Santiago Mora run a great program that I have nothing but praises for. Dr. Helder Torres, a Nicaraguan dentist and our dentist for the trip ,was a joy to be around. He is also very talented at what he does. If you would like to know more about my experience, i'd be happy to tell more as well as share pictures of what we did.
 
tjpierce said:
I went with GMT to Nicaragua for 2 weeks last month, and I have to say that it was well worth it. 22 of us were on the trip, and 4 of us were pre-dental. The rest did med stuff all day, but the 4 of us were able to get some really good hands on experience. We had 7 clinic days for about 7 or 8 hours a day in which we each had a large amount of experience cleaning teeth, restoring teeth with amalgam and composite material, giving injections, and extractions. Dr. Wil Johnson and Santiago Mora run a great program that I have nothing but praises for. Dr. Helder Torres, a Nicaraguan dentist and our dentist for the trip ,was a joy to be around. He is also very talented at what he does. If you would like to know more about my experience, i'd be happy to tell more as well as share pictures of what we did.
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I am dying to do one of these trips!! Did you get to do extractions and stuff? Also, do they write you an LOR if you want?
 
I also wanted to ask if any of you pre-dents would lkike to go on one of these dental trips to Nicaragua in December. I am trying to set one up with Dr. Johnson and if there are enough students then he will make a special trip and go with us. I thought this would be interesting if a bunch of SDNers are interested in going. You get a lot of hands on experience, and a chance of a lifetime. Let me know if you're interested. I chose December because school gets out for break.
 
Im going to Nicaragua in about two months with GMT and I am extremely excited. I go to the University of Texas- Austin and the GMT program is growing quickly here. I am apart of the club and we work closely with Dr. Wil (who is very enthusiastic and interested in predents). Dr. Wil actually used to work for the ISL program but broke off and started his own program (GMT) which is why the two programs are so similar.

The dental program is very new, I think the first dental trip was not too long ago. Dr. Wil wants at least 4-5 predents interested in going on a trip for the dental program to be worthwhile. I have been trying to recruit people as well to go on a trip this summer (7/31-8/13) I know a bunch of people that have gone on these trips, some have been several times to different countries, and they spoke about how great of an experience it was for them. Almost all the premeds I knew that went (no predents from our school have gone yet) have been asked in their interviews about their GMT trip so I think it looks really great on the apps.

Anyways, I know these programs are very worthwhile, Im hoping that enough predents sign up for my trip to go, if not im hoping to maybe go again during Spring break! 😀
 
xdianaax,

Yea, I did probably 8 extractions by myself. I know Dr. Wil will write a LOR if you ask.

tdh278,

Have fun on your trip. It definetely is a very worthwhile experience. Hopefully you will have the same dentist I did. His name is Dr. Helder Torres, and he is a very nice and helpful guy. He also is very good at what he does. We had 4 guys as pre-dental, and I think anymore than that would be too many people. Even with 4 it got crowded around the chair when someone was doing a procedure.
 
hi...i was wondering if anyone has been on a trip w/ cross cultural solutions? I'm thinking of going to Tanzania at the end of this summer and wanted to know if this is a good idea?
Thanks.
 
redpetal said:
hi...i was wondering if anyone has been on a trip w/ cross cultural solutions? I'm thinking of going to Tanzania at the end of this summer and wanted to know if this is a good idea?
Thanks.
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keep me updated on this, I'd be very interested. My friend just got back from doing environmental research in Tanzania, and said it was a wonderful experience, so if this program youre referring to is safe/worthwhile I would love to know. Thanks!
 
Hi xdianaax! Wow...this is exactly what I've been looking for to experience as a predent as well as a young college student. I know you posted this info in may of last yr, but I was wondering if you ever went on the trip during last winter break. If you haven't done it and is still recruiting ppl to go, I'm in for the trip any time this year or the next. Let me know!
😀
xdianaax said:
I also wanted to ask if any of you pre-dents would lkike to go on one of these dental trips to Nicaragua in December. I am trying to set one up with Dr. Johnson and if there are enough students then he will make a special trip and go with us. I thought this would be interesting if a bunch of SDNers are interested in going. You get a lot of hands on experience, and a chance of a lifetime. Let me know if you're interested. I chose December because school gets out for break.
Click to expand...
 
Or if there's any sdners wanna go on the trip, let's see if there's anything we can do!
 
I posted it a few days ago, lol. I want to go this christmas break, so we need a few more people and he said he would do a special trip just for us!!! So you in for sure, siba?
 
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Yeap! I'm 100% interested. First of all, when is your winter break? Mine ends on the week before christmas.... If it has to be in december, that means we are leaving during Christmas? Also, the trip is usually ten days right? How many more students does the dentist want?
 
Well I e-mailed him again tonight, so I should be hearing back tomorrow.I'll let you know. Maybe you can take your exams a week early or so, maybe find out your exam schedule so we can try and make it back for christmas if not we'll maybe try ad figure something else out. I'm glad so many people are interested maybe we can get a nice group to go and do some really neat things! I'm sure we'll all get great LOR's from him because we all ut this together ourselves and did this on our own time and stuff!!
 
I'm just curious why we have to leave in December? Would beginning of Jan. 08 work for you guys? We can probably leave right after the new year, or christmas, and come back around 2nd week of Jan.

Very excited!😀 Hope to hear from you and the dentist soon!
 
Well I don't know when schools start, and I'm moving to chicago right after the new year. Anyways, we'll see what happens, if lots of people want to go, but can't go in December, I guess we can try for Spring Break, although we face the same problem because everyone has spring break at a different time.
 
Hi! Yea... hope we can figure something out too! Please do let us know when the dentist gets back to you. So, they only have scheduled trips during the summer?
 
Yes that's the only time he has scheduled ones, he said if he got together enough students that he will do a special trip just for us. I still haven't heard anything yet, but I will keep you posted when I do.
 
i hope you hear from Dr. Wil soon. I am awaiting one if his emails too! I know hes about to get ready for a trip to panama/costa rica with pre med kiddos. id definitely be interested in going on another trip though!!
 
tdh278 said:
Im going to Nicaragua in about two months with GMT and I am extremely excited. I go to the University of Texas- Austin and the GMT program is growing quickly here. I am apart of the club and we work closely with Dr. Wil (who is very enthusiastic and interested in predents). Dr. Wil actually used to work for the ISL program but broke off and started his own program (GMT) which is why the two programs are so similar.

The dental program is very new, I think the first dental trip was not too long ago. Dr. Wil wants at least 4-5 predents interested in going on a trip for the dental program to be worthwhile. I have been trying to recruit people as well to go on a trip this summer (7/31-8/13) I know a bunch of people that have gone on these trips, some have been several times to different countries, and they spoke about how great of an experience it was for them. Almost all the premeds I knew that went (no predents from our school have gone yet) have been asked in their interviews about their GMT trip so I think it looks really great on the apps.

Anyways, I know these programs are very worthwhile, Im hoping that enough predents sign up for my trip to go, if not im hoping to maybe go again during Spring break! 😀
Click to expand...

If you need some Pre-Dents to sign up, please send me some info! My husband and I could go either in late December or Spring break!
 
(This is a 2 yr old thread) Welcome to SDN! I've never done 1 of these trip, but I think most do them because they think it will look amazing on their application and will have something cool to write about. However, a few day trip doesn't say more than spending time and commitment at a local non-profit clinic over a longer period of time. Also, you can probably find a local dentist who plans to go on his own trip and tag along for much cheaper.

Or if you really wanna spend $2000, why not raise money to fund supplies and organize a local event with some dentists who will donate their time to serve the less fortunate in your community. Be creative and stand out.
 
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