Could Dentistry in the Peruvian Jungle Be on Your Bucket List?

Have you ever thought about using your dental skills in a third-world country? About 25 years ago, that opportunity came my way.

A good friend of mine was organizing a humanitarian trip to Peru, where one of his projects was to build an additional classroom for an existing grade school. His thought was to include dentistry as an additional project. I received the invitation and gladly accepted. Since I would be needing a dental assistant, my 12-year-old son came to mind and was immediately drafted.

We flew to Lima, Peru, and then took another flight to a remote area in the middle of the Amazon jungle. Later that day, we arrived at the school to set up our temporary dental clinic. The school principal greeted us and gave us a quick tour. Every one of the classrooms was being used, but he recommended that we use the school library. That turned out to be a blessing because we needed the tables for our dental supplies and the chairs for our waiting room. 

I brought a portable A-dec dental unit, but I needed to find something that would work as a dental chair. I spoke with one of the school officials and let him know that we could really use a couple of lawn chairs so that we would have something that could recline as we were working on patients. He stated those aren’t common in this jungle town. He offered to drive me around town on his motorcycle to see if we could buy or borrow one. After striking out on all our possibilities, he said he had a friend who made furniture and thought that we could ask him. 

Upon arrival, I explained our situation to the furniture maker. He said he didn’t have a lawn chair but offered one of his plastic kitchen chairs. I gratefully accepted because it was better suited than the ones in the library. He then asked if I could look at his four-year-old daughter’s teeth. She had been complaining of a toothache for a few weeks and was having a hard time sleeping. I did a quick assessment and observed that all four of her upper incisors were badly infected. I spoke to her dad about the condition of her teeth and recommended that they be extracted. He understood. I invited him to bring her to our clinic first thing in the morning and said that we would take care of her. 

The next day, about 30 minutes before we opened the clinic to a line of people patiently waiting outside, we went through our checklist. With our portable dental unit connected to a borrowed two-horsepower compressor, a kitchen chair for our patients and a five-gallon bucket for me to sit on, we were ready to go to work. 

When we opened the door, the parents of the four-year-old girl were there with her. Before I brought her back, Mom told me that her husband had a gift for us. He then presented us with an adjustable dental chair that he had made in his furniture shop. I asked her the story behind the chair. She said her husband was so impressed with our volunteer effort that he wanted to help in some way. She went on to say that he spent most of the night designing and making a simple dental chair that could be raised and lowered as needed. Our group was floored by his generosity. We took care of his daughter as well as close to 100 other patients over the next five days. 

Upon completion of the work projects, the local mayor organized a huge celebration for us. This jungle village was so grateful for our volunteer service and how much our efforts would make an immediate impact on the community. At the conclusion of our trip, our group was able to visit the ruins at Machu Picchu as well as some of the other local points of interest. Including these experiences makes these humanitarian trips much more meaningful, as we now have a deeper appreciation for their culture.

My son had a great experience being my assistant and being introduced to doing dentistry in a third-world country. His first comment at the conclusion of the trip was, “Wow, Dad, these people don’t hardly have anything, but they are always happy.” I agreed and commented that we can certainly learn a lot from them. 

Our mission on these trips is always to try to save as many teeth as possible. The teeth that we could save were restored either with amalgam or composite. For many of our patients, I was the first dentist that they had ever been to. Even though nearly all of our patients really valued their teeth, their biggest obstacle was a lack of resources to pay for even basic dental care. 

Since that experience, I have had the opportunity to go on dental humanitarian trips to Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, as well as return trips to the jungle of Peru. Each of my four kids have had the opportunity to go with me. As a dad, I try to include my children on as many trips as possible. Years later, they still talk about the unique experiences they’ve had. There always seems to be one constant: After every trip, each one of us is always a better person than we were the week before.

Currently, I volunteer with the Xela Aid organization in Guatemala. Check out its website at xelaaid.org. We would love to have you come down to Guatemala to share your dental skills.