Doing Small， Vision Big- 2013泰國短期醫療團 實習醫學生Sadhvik
Doing Small， Vision Big
Sadhvik Vijay -- Dental Institute， King’s College London
｜This process understandably takes many years， and our goals may never be achieved without the more regular presence of a dentist｜ within the community， but we have at least， to our maximum capacity， begun the process of improving their oral health.....
Working with the medical and dental team of Changhua Christian Hospital， Taiwan has been an absolute pleasure for this last week. Being the only non-Taiwanese member of the team (and therefore the only one not able to speak mandarin!) as well as being my first visit to Thailand， I remember feeling equal parts anticipation and trepidation as we landed in Chiang Rai.
After having spent three days in Bangkok， the scenic views and fresh air of Chiang Rai presented an interesting contrast in the landscapes of Thailand. The communities (3 in total) were all situated approximately one hour from our base in the Wiang Inn Hotel， Chiang Rai. All three communities treated us with a remarkable level of kindness and respect， and the medical and dental team from the Thai Overbrook Hospital was incredibly supportive and helped facilitate communication as well as the provision of healthcare to the local communities.
The mobile clinic set-up over all four days was both very well thought out and operated smoothly. As this was my first year working in Thailand with the Taiwanese team， I can’t comment on the evolution of the set-up over the previous three years they’ve been working in Thailand， but the set-up was definitely slick from what I observed this year! With early starts each day， we travelled over to the communities and helped set up the clinics in local schools/churches and their adjacent buildings with the help of the Thai team， all the while members of the local community start gathering to be seen by our team.
With regards to the mobile dental clinic， patients had already had a preliminary screening when they entered the site where our clinic was based. Then if needed they were seen in dental chair 1) oral screening， to then be sent to either dental chair 2) restorative work or 3) extractions. The dental team consisted of 2 Taiwanese dentists， two dental students from the UK (including myself!)， a Thai dentist， and two Thai nurses. The patient turnover was fast， and at a very different pace to what we were used to at dental school， but we quickly got accustomed to the pace. With the Thai hospital providing all the necessary equipment to perform tooth extractions and restorative work， and with the Thai dentist/nurses providing translation with the patients， we had everything in place to provide oral healthcare to a high standard to the communities. The work I primarily undertook was tooth extractions on adult patients， until the last day in the Ban-Maepoonlang community where the majority of our patient base were children from the local school， on that day， the majority of my work was restoration of early carious lesions on deciduous and permanent teeth.
An important aspect of improving the oral health of a community is to emphasise and instill the importance of an effective oral hygiene routine. As a team we delivered oral hygiene instruction in the form of tooth brushing advice to groups of school children across all three communities using a enlarged model and toothbrush， and asking the children to come up and demonstrate how to brush their teeth in front of their peers. This process understandably takes many years， and our goals may never be achieved without the more regular presence of a dentist within the community， but we have at least， to our maximum capacity， begun the process of improving their oral health.
This whole process has been incredibly satisfying for me， both in terms of providing for a rural community that has limited access to healthcare， and also on a professional level being able to share my knowledge of dentistry with the people working here. The entire team， both Thai and Taiwanese have shown me an incredible amount of kindness， and I cannot express enough thanks to the Dentists who worked with us over this past week. My best wishes to all the patients we saw in the communities we visited， and I have no doubt that the medical team at Changhua & Overbrook Hospitals will have a fantastic Christmas and New Year.
