Each team will have a week s worth of dentistry, boating down the river to a village and providing care. Most of the care consists of extracts but hygiene plays a role too. The students will give care under the supervision of the preceptors, and a far cry it is from the sterile, brightly lighted, fully equipped clinics of the Health Center. The patients win because they receive the care they need so badly. They deliver high quality care in a non-standard setting, Dr. Goupil said.
Clinics are outdoors in village squares.
The light is natural. Temperatures are usually in the 90s and sweltering as you d expect in the rain forest, but last year during a hot spell, it was 105 degrees and totally enervating. The dental chair is a kitchen- or dining room chair. These are austere conditions and the people are poverty-stricken. It s an entirely different culture.