Day 3 Blog (Only took 3 days to post)

Day 3: The longest working day so far!

A big hello to you all!

Melissa, Pan and Melanie playing an English dental word matching game with the kids

This is our third day in Thailand and we have been very busy! With a start of 8.15am we were working all the way until 8.30pm. It was my first opportunity to assist Dr. Patel with treatments and it was a pleasure having the chance to observe how he works; he’s really good with the kids and successfully gets over the language barrier! What I have found amazing is that a high majority of the kids do not complain, even when they are experiencing some discomfort- they are tough cookies!

Today’s treatments were carried out on the school kids and some kids from an orphanage. Dr. Bunnag and Dr. Patel sure had their hands tied as the TOTAL stats so far will show…

62 restorative patients
59 hygiene patients
104 fillings
256 sealants
49 cleanings
58 fluoride applications

Great work dentists aka moh fan! (Dr. Teeth literal translation!) They have both been amazing working with very few breaks for 12 hours!

In addition to the treating, there is also oral health education taking place, in the form of games of course! We have made our very own memory game, with colour coded cards for food that are bad for you teeth, good for your teeth and hygiene cards (e.g. toothpaste, dental floss). The aim of the game is to match the picture card with its corresponding word- it’s been a success in teaching the kids English and also in us learning some Thai! Keng mak (well done)! 

Aaron, Raina and Pan were busy interviewing the principal of the school, a grade 6 student and 2 girls from Grade 7 and 12. Some comments from one of the kids were that he learnt what was good and what was bad for his teeth and that he was grateful for his treatments. These videos will be available on the website soon! So watch this space!   

I’ve really enjoyed working with the Smiles on Wings team and the kids so far and will definitely miss everyone when I’m back in cold England! It’s been great to see how Smiles on Wings run their missions with such organization, planning and with a smile!

Best wishes!
 Jacqueline Chok (Jax), a dental student from the UK.

Day 2 Blog

This is Day 2 of my mission with “Smiles On Wings.”  Although I cannot contribute to the actual dentistry, I have taken it upon myself to do the small things to help make this a successful mission. Education is a vital part of getting the children to improve their hygiene.  Teaching the children how to take care of their own teeth is very important for the success of future missions.  Prevention helps reduce the number of major issues and allows the dentists to focus on helping keep the teeth healthy. Today my role was to help create an activity of making a “tooth hat.” Not as easy as it sounds, but with the concentrated efforts of several other volunteers this turned out to be successful and fun. As silly as it may seem, we hope it has a lasting impression on the children and they develop a daily routine of good hygiene.  

Volunteers presenting their "Love Your Teeth" Hats

My experience so far has been an education to me as well. I have enjoyed the time and energy it takes to help support this mission.  My son and I traveled for well over 24 hours to share in the passion shown by Dr. Usa and Dr. Atul, the dentists here.  We feel privileged to be able to help. Thank you for any support you might be able to share.  Keep smiling :)

First one to the top wins!

Sid screening a student from the R35 School

Written by Matt Frentsos from Potomac, MD

Mission Day 5 - Internet Day 1

We have been in Phang-nga for 5 days and finally got the internet up  and running today!  Dr. Usa was running the show by herself for the first 3 days of the clinic and today our super group of volunteers sprang into action.  Today we treated students from the R35 School, children from a local fisherman village as well as from the Daungprateep Foundation Orphanage.

Nikhil, Sid, Jax and Pan teaching kids how to brush their teeth!

Dr. Usa screening a patient on the first day of the mission

Dr. Atul, Dr. Usa, Sze San, Tiffany and Melissa are running the dental station.  Jax, Sid and Nikhil are in charge of screening the patients and dental education.  Pan is our superhero translator.  Aaron and Luke are the video/photo squad.  Matt is the mechanic/soccer player/kid entertainer and Ros is kid entertainer #2/computer engineer/internet expert.  With such a great time we have been able to treat many patients, provide in depth dental education while having fun and eating delicious Thai food at every spare moment. 

Make sure to check the blog daily for words from our volunteers, pics of the clinic and treatment stats!