{"id":23228,"date":"2013-04-16T11:10:45","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T15:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/?p=23228"},"modified":"2013-04-16T11:10:46","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T15:10:46","slug":"education-leads-to-improving-health-in-san-marcos-honduras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/2013\/04\/16\/education-leads-to-improving-health-in-san-marcos-honduras\/","title":{"rendered":"Education Leads to Improving Health in San Marcos, Honduras"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cepillo-200\"<\/a>\u201cCepillo! Cepillo!\u201d Spanish for \u201cToothbrush!\u201d those were the calls from school children in San Marcos, Honduras, when Sahar Abtahi AEGD 13 and Lindy Su DMD 13 visited with Cape Cares<\/a> from March 1 to 8, 2013. Cape Cares is a Cape Cod-based organization that brings health and support professionals to Central America\u2014with a focus on Honduras\u2014to provide free health care.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s website states: \u201cHistorically, most of the dental care provided was surgical\u2014extracting badly decayed teeth. As the years have progressed, we have emphasized education and prevention and now we are able to provide fillings, dental cleanings, and fluoride treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to a local elementary school to do dental public health one day and you could see the effects of the ongoing education,\u201d Abtahi says. \u201cThey\u2019re becoming more aware, even though there is really no access to health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education is helping the population make great strides, but the need is still huge.<\/p>\n

Assistant Professor Kathy Held adds perspective to Abtahi\u2019s statement: \u201cIn the US we say there is a disparity of care, or no dental care, but that\u2019s because people can\u2019t afford dental care. In Honduras, they are physically unable to access a dentist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t expect the need for healthcare,\u201d says Su. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect people to walk hours at the crack of dawn just to see us. At the end of the trip we felt bad letting people go not having been seen because we didn\u2019t have the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abtahi paints a vivid picture of their surroundings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not exactly easy living,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had no electricity. We were set up outside, so we\u2019d see gauze blowing off in the wind. Chickens would walk in front of us during extractions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the two enjoyed both the dental experience and the natural simplicity of life there.<\/p>\n

One of Abtahi\u2019s favorite moments was when a 19-year-old woman came in not because she was in pain, but because she had seen a cavity on a back tooth and wanted a filling. \u201cI was so excited that she wanted to save her back teeth that I did a posterior composite even though we were only doing anterior teeth,\u201d Abtahi said. \u201cWe could tell our presence there was making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abtahi was unable to go on an international elective externship as a fourth-year dental student at GSDM, but she kept trying. She was overjoyed to find a spot this year, using her vacation time and marking the first time GSDM has placed a resident on an international elective externship.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re hesitant to do this on your own so I wanted my first trip to be with the School,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to feel supported by the School so that I could use this as a steppingstone toward participating in missions in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos are available on Facebook<\/a> and Flickr<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCepillo! Cepillo!\u201d Spanish for \u201cToothbrush!\u201d those were the calls from school children in San Marcos, Honduras, when Sahar Abtahi AEGD 13 and Lindy Su DMD 13 visited with Cape Cares from March 1 to 8, 2013. Cape Cares is a Cape Cod-based organization that brings health and support professionals to Central America\u2014with a focus on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4479,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13836,13840],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23230,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23228\/revisions\/23230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}