An Ounce of Prevention

Some of our patients come to us without ever having seen a dentist.

These children have already
experienced excruciating pain in their young lives.

Their teeth are literally falling apart.

Other patients have seen dentists who gave them poor dental care. One little girl had been to another Guatemalan dentist who, for some reason, had put silk sutures in her gums. Those kind of sutures do not dissolve. Perhaps because of lack of money, the little girl never returned to that dentist to get the sutures removed. By the time Dr. Allred saw her, she had a potentially life-threatening infection around the old stitches; and the roots of her two deciduous front teeth were protruding out of her gums. With no facilities for general anesthesia, it took four of us to hold the little girl still so that Bob could help her. 

If you could look closer,
 you would see tears in our eyes.

An important way of helping our patients is to teach them to prevent cavities.

We brush their teeth for them.

Then we teach them to brush.

Pink disclosing solution
 shows  where  plaque is located.
"Brush until there is no more pink..

We also apply fluoride as  preventative care.

Some of our patients have been coming to Tio Jaun clinic for years. Their oral health is much better. Occasionally,  their teeth are perfect.

Years of good dental hygiene pay off.

Dentists say that their goal is to put themselves out of business.
That is certainly the goal of the dentists in our clinic.

If we can see these kids at a young enough age, and encourage them over the years, they can have great dental health for a lifetime.

These school kids benefit from the care of the current dentists and from the outstanding care of dentists who preceded us in the clinic.