SDM Professor Brings Oral Hygiene to Nicaragua
SDM professor Kathy Held spent 10 days in Nicaragua providing free dental care to more than 600 children.
Kathy Held, an assistant professor in the School of Dental Medicine and assistant director of extramural programs, spent 10 days in February in Rio San Juan, Nicaragua, where she and other volunteers with Project Stretch provided free dental care to more than 600 children.
“We found children in dire need of emergency medical care,” says Held, who traveled to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, in 2005 and to Teacapan, Mexico, last year as part of the program. “One pediatric dentist with Project Stretch, Dr. Chris Cannon, said he saw more infections in one morning than he would in a year in his private dental practice in Iowa.”
The trip was the first effort in Rio San Juan for Project Stretch, a nonprofit organization that provides dental services to disadvantaged children worldwide. Team members gathered information about children’s oral health, provided more than 250 temporary restorations, and gave more than 600 children their first toothbrushes. Project Stretch plans to return to Rio San Juan next year with additional people and supplies.
Brittany Jasnoff can be reached at bjasnoff@bu.edu.