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DT U.S. Edition, Nov./Dec. 2010, Vol. 5, No. 23

DENTAL TRIBUNE | Nov./Dec. 2010 News 3A f DT page 1A the Afghan people. The tragedy of Afghanistan More than 30 years of war have made Afghanistan into a desperate place. The nation is filled with pov- erty and hardship. More than 3 mil- lion orphans search for some kind of meaningful future. Widows and single mothers are everywhere, begging in the streets, trying to survive. So many adults have died that the average age is only 14. Due to the great challenges of just staying alive, 20 percent of young children die before the age of 5. The birth/ death rate is the highest of any nation in the world. Twenty children a month are killed or maimed by mine explo- sions. Many children are affected by post-traumatic stress disorder, and 80 percent of older children feel that life is not worth living. But there is hope. And that hope lies in education. Inspiration for change The Afghanistan Dental Relief Proj- ect was founded in 2003 following a visit to the Central Highlands province of Wardak. Taking 500 pounds of portable equipment to an orphanage at 11,000 feet elevation, Dr. James Rolfe of Santa Barbara, Calif., spent three weeks treating the orphan boys there. He would first treat one of them, and then he would have the patient become his assistant. Rolfe discovered that around 85 percent of the boys were fast learn- ers and adapted well to the chal- lenges of dental assisting. Seeing that the boys had no future without education, he imagined training them to be professionals. Toward the end of his visit, Rolfe began to see people living in the surrounding area. What he saw shocked him; many people had multiple abscessed teeth, and some were on the verge of death. How could this be, he thought. Then he learned that there was no dental care available in the entirety of Wardak Province, which is about the size of Conneticut. No dental care whatsoever for more than 200,000 people. Why not train the orphans to be dental technicians? Rolfe returned to Santa Barbara and, with the help of local crafts- men, converted a forty-foot ship- ping container into a modern den- tal office with three chairs, a steril- izing room and a complete dental laboratory, all self-contained with its own water supply and electric- ity. He then shipped the clinic and an additional 60 tons of dental sup- plies and equipment at his own expense to a site in Kabul, donated by a generous Afghan-American family. Now, the clinic is up and running with three dentists seeing patients each day, treating about 20,000 patients a year. But where do the orphans come in? The Kabul School of Dental Technology In 2007, the Kabul School of Dental Technology was formed. Students were selected from the local popu- lation of orphans, widows, handi- capped, single mothers and socially disadvantaged populations. The eager students study hard for four months of intensive course work and clinical experience to become certified dental assistants. Graduates can immediately get a job with local dentists or choose to continue their education to get an additional certificate as a dental hygienist or dental laboratory tech- nician. The program has allowed the clinic to see many more patients and to provide a higher standard of care for the patients coming there. And it’s all provided free of charge. Many of the students endure hardships in order to attend the school. They are extremely dedi- cated, always coming early and working hard to master the techni- cal material. In August 2009, the full-service commercial dental laboratory was opened and now dentists through- out Afghanistan have a reliable resource for their crowns and den- tures, rather than sending their work to Pakistan for a questionable product. Recently, a chrome partial casting machine was added to the dental laboratory, which will soon allow production of chrome frame- works. The first class of dental hygien- ists ever produced in Afghanistan is now working in the dental hygiene field, providing local dentists with a service that was not obtainable pre- viously; you just could not get your teeth cleaned before these students graduated. Now, people line up for this service. Making social change The educational program has opened up new opportunities for these students. Orphans with no future now are able to determine their own lives as productive indi- viduals. Women from the Afghan Dental Relief Project (ADRP) pro- gram have become authority figures in a male-dominated society. Many people have been able to access dental health care in a sophisti- cated system, which has improved their health and longevity. Better access to dental care should help people live longer in Afghanistan, and raise the average mortality from only 42 years. The ADRP recently opened a clinic in the women’s prison as well. All graduates are taught the atraumatic restorative technique promoted by the World Health Organization, in which lay people are trained to excavate gross caries without anesthesia and place glass ionomer restorations. Each student is given a kit of instruments and restorative mate- rial when graduating, and encour- aged to participate in field trips to rural clinics where no care is available. After training, they are encouraged to practice the tech- nique in underserved areas by themselves. Promoting volunteerism Many dentists have journeyed to the clinic from all over the world, paying their own travel expens- es, to volunteer at the facility and teach, work in the laboratory with the students or treat patients. In addition, other dental profes- sionals, including dental assistants, dental hygienists and dental lab technicians, also volunteer. Guests stay in a modern, secure guest house, which provides comfortable sleeping accommodations, meals, laundry, hot showers and Internet access to communicate with the folks back home, all for a small cost. Information about travel and vol- unteering can be accessed on the website, www.adrpinc.org. What you can do With a little change, you can make a big change. One-hundred percent of all donations go directly to the support of our project. We have no salaried employees, and we all pay our own expenses. You can become a member by joining ADRP with a monthly contribution that will help support the work in the clinic and in the school. Help build a permanent facility on the present clinic site and move the shippable clinic to another town so that we can begin another train- ing site in that town to benefit the local residents. You can give a child complete dental care for $15. We need donated supplies, instruments and equipment. Den- tists are encouraged to contrib- ute their gold scrap to the project, where it can be recycled to provide funding for supplies and operating expenses. We all became dental profession- als because we love doing dentistry; let’s experience the joy of using that knowledge and skill without a fee, for the good of mankind. Donations are tax-deductible, as ADRP is a 501(c)3 non-profit orga- nization. Donations can be sent to ADRP, 31 E. Canon Perdido St., Santa Barbara, Calif., 93101. For more information, please visit the website www.adrpinc.org or e-mail the headquarters at adrp@verizon.net. Rolfe can also be contacted at (805) 963-2329. DT (Source: Afghan Dental Relief Project) AD